Alberbury Castle is in the village of

Alberbury Alberbury is a village in Shropshire, England, west of Shrewsbury on the B4393 road which travels from Ford to Lake Vyrnwy. It is on to the England-Wales border, marked by Prince's Oak. The River Severn runs just north of the village, and mo ...

, some nine miles west of Shrewsbury,

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

and very close to the border with

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. The building has been constructed from locally available

red sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) b ...

. It is a Grade II listed building. Its origins are uncertain but it was probably built in the 13th century by

Fulk FitzWarin Fulk FitzWarin (1160x1180 – c. 1258), variant spellings ( Latinized ''Fulco filius Garini'', Welsh ''Syr ffwg ap Gwarin''), the third (Fulk III), was a prominent representative of a marcher family associated especially with estates in Shrops ...

during the reign of

Richard I Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was ...

. According to Sir

William Dugdale Sir William Dugdale (12 September 1605 – 10 February 1686) was an English antiquary and herald. As a scholar he was influential in the development of medieval history as an academic subject. Life Dugdale was born at Shustoke, near Coles ...

, the castle of Alberbury was given to Guarine de Metz, the ancestor of FitzWarin family, by

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...

. However, this account is disputed by the Domesday book. The main purpose of its construction appears to have been as a barrier to stop the Welsh onslaught and to retain control of the passes along the

River Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

. According to sources, the castle was razed by Llewellyn the Great in 1223, only to be rebuilt three years later in 1226, this time with a stone wall surrounding the bailey. A few years later, the

Sheriff of Shropshire This is a list of sheriffs and high sheriffs of Shropshire The sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the high sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibil ...

, Thomas Corbet of Caus, took advantage of a hasty utterance of Fulk FitzWarin, and had him ejected from the castle and took over his lands citing FitzWarin's words as a renunciation of fealty. However, Fitzwarin was able to retake his lands and his manor through the law. The FitzWarin family retained possession of the castle, although they moved their seat of power to

Whittington Whittington may refer to: Places * Whittington, Victoria, Australia * Whittington, Illinois, United States England * Old Whittington, Derbyshire * New Whittington, Derbyshire * Whittington Moor, Derbyshire * Whittington, Gloucestershire * Whit ...

after they secured it as a stronghold, till the mid fourteenth century, when it may have been abandoned. A church building adjoining the castle, with a single high tower with a triangular roof, that may have been useful as an outpost or a look out, still exists today as Alberbury's parish church of St Michael. It was founded by the FritzWarin family during the reign of

Henry I Henry I may refer to: 876–1366 * Henry I the Fowler, King of Germany (876–936) * Henry I, Duke of Bavaria (died 955) * Henry I of Austria, Margrave of Austria (died 1018) * Henry I of France (1008–1060) * Henry I the Long, Margrave of the ...

. The castle has had a number of owners over the years. In 1842, the ruins of the castle were owned by Sir Baldwin Leighton according to Charles Hulbert. It's not currently possible to visit the castle as it lies on private land.

Notes

{{Reflist Castles in Shropshire Grade II listed buildings in Shropshire Ruins in Shropshire

See also

Notes