Castlefacts³

Much Wenlock Castle

Has been described as a Questionable Fortified Ecclesiastical site, and also as a Questionable Uncertain

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains

Name	Much Wenlock Castle
Alternative Names	Castel Wenlock
Historic Country	Shropshire
Modern Authority	Shropshire
1974 Authority	Shropshire
Civil Parish	Much Wenlock

There are traditions of a castle at Much Wenlock, Castel Wenlock being documented by William of Worcester in 1480. (PastScape ref. Jackson 1988)

Gatehouse Comments

The reference in William of Worcetre's Itinerary is in a list of distances ("From Bridgnorth to Wenlock Castle 5 miles") and, in this context, may well be a transcribing error.The surviving Priory Tower, "C13. Stone rubble. One of the entrance-gate towers of the priory, a tall rectangular plain structure." (Listed Building Report) has a martial quality and the gatehouse complex of which it is the surviving part may well have been the court house and estate offices for the temporal holdings of the priory. This building had a similar form and identical function to most castles. There were certainly no other landowners who could have had a castle here and the town, whilst effectively an independent borough by the C13, was in church hands until the reformation.The gatehouse of the priory was described as 'fortified' in 1845 but the priory is not generally described as fortified.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

This is a Grade 2 listed building protected by law

Historic England Scheduled Monument Number

Historic England Listed Building number(s)

1367552

Images Of England

254794

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)

1391562
72146 (Priory Tower)

County Historic Environment Record

www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MSA68&resourceID=1015

OS Map Grid Reference	SO623000
Latitude	52.5968894958496
Longitude	-2.55676007270813
Eastings	362385
Northings	300042