Shrawardine Castle

Heritage listing

Details The monument includes Shrawardine castle, a shell keep castle with the remains of a stone keep, motte, three baileys and associated settlement earthworks situated on the north bank of the River Severn nine miles west of Shrewsbury. The castle is sited in an elevated position overlooking the river to control a crossing point and, with Little Shrawardine castle 800m west (the subject of a separate scheduling), is one of two castles designed to defend both sides of the ford. The fragmentary standing remains of the shell keep are Listed Grade II. At the time of the Domesday survey Shrawardine formed part of the lands of Sheriff Rainald de Bailleul, Sheriff of Shropshire. The name Shrawardine is believed by some authorities to derive from "Shire-reeve-weoden", meaning the defensive enclosure of the sheriff. Sometime after the Conquest Shrawardine passed into the hands of the Fitzalan lordship of Oswestry and it is believed that the present castle was founded at this time by order of Henry I. The first written reference to the castle occurs in 1165 when Philip Helgot wrote acknowledging service of the castle guard to the Crown. The castle was used by Henry II during his campaigns against the Welsh in 1165-6 and royal expenditure for building works on the castle is recorded through the years 1171 to 1214. The castle was attacked and its defences destroyed in a Welsh raid led by Prince Llewellyn the Great in the following year, 1215. The king ordered the sheriff to refortify the castle in 1220, however the following year, 1221, the service owed to the Crown by the tenants of Shrawardine was discontinued and transferred to Montgomery Castle. By 1240 the castle had been returned into the hands of the Fitzalan earls of Arundel who rebuilt the castle and renamed it Castle I

From the Historic England List Entry under OGL v3.