Weston-under-Redcastle is a small village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

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 th ...

, England. It lies 10 km (6.2 miles) by road east of Wem. At one end of the village is the main entrance to

Hawkstone Park Hawkstone Park is was a destination on the English Grand Tour and is a historic landscape park with pleasure grounds and gardens historically associated with Soulton Hall and Hawkstone Hall. It is located north east of the small village o ...

hotel and golf courses, and at the other end is a wood. Weston was mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

, and part of the 1989 BBC adaptation of

Prince Caspian ''Prince Caspian'' (originally published as ''Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia'') is a high fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis, published by Geoffrey Bles in 1951. It was the second published of seven novels in ''The Chronicles of N ...

was filmed in the village. It is under the south west edge of the Hawkstone Ridge.

The village

Weston has a

Village Hall A village hall is a public building in a village used for various things such as: United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, a village hall is usually a building which contains at least one large room (plus kitchen and toilets), is owned by a local ...

, and Maynard's Farm Shop mentioned in

Rick Stein Rick may refer to: People *Rick (given name), a list of people with the given name *Alan Rick (born 1976), Brazilian politician, journalist, pastor and television personality *Johannes Rick (1869–1946), Austrian-born Brazilian priest and mycol ...

's ''Food Heroes of Britain''. Weston is home to the 18th century

Hotel which has two golf courses, two restaurants, bars and award-winning

Follies ''Follies'' is a Musical theater, musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman. The plot takes place in a crumbling Broadway theater, now scheduled for demolition, previously home to a musical revue (based on t ...

History

St Luke's Church

The

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

church of St Luke dates back to 1791, built in the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style but with a

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

tower. It is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. It was originally a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ea ...

, attached to the parish of

Hodnet Hodnet is a village and civil parish in Shropshire, England. The town of Market Drayton lies 5.7 miles (9.2 km) north-east of the village. History Evidence of a Bronze Age burial site was discovered during construction of the bypass in ...

, but is now a parish church. The red sandstone building of 1791, on a medieval site, was mostly funded by

Sir Richard Hill, 2nd Baronet Sir Richard Hill, 2nd Baronet of Hawkstone (6 June 1732 – 28 August 1808), was a prominent religious Christian revival, revivalist and Tory Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament for Shropshire (UK Parliament constituency) ...

of Hawkstone. It was restored in the late 19th century: this included the chancel, the gabled timber porch, stained glass, pews and octagonal font.

Domesday Book

Weston-under-Redcastle was called Westune in the 1086

; it was included in the

Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...

within the county of

. The village had 21 households, which was considered quite large for the time, with total tax value of 3

geld Geld may refer to: * Gelding, equine castration * Danegeld Danegeld (; "Danish tax", literally "Dane yield" or tribute) was a tax raised to pay tribute or protection money to the Viking raiders to save a land from being ravaged. It was calle ...

units. In 1066 the value to the lord was £3; in 1086 it was £2. The village contained 3 villagers, 9 smallholders, 8

slaves Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

and 1 rider. Weston had 8 plough lands, 2 lord's plough teams and one men's plough team. In 1066 the lord was

Edric the Wild Eadric ''the Wild'' (or Eadric ''Silvaticus''), also known as Wild Edric, Eadric ''Cild'' (or ''Child'') and Edric ''the Forester'', was an Anglo-Saxon magnate of Shropshire and Herefordshire who led English resistance to the Norman Conquest, acti ...

, and in 1086 it was Ranulf Peverel. The fifteen Shropshire hundreds mentioned in the

Domesday Survey Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

were entirely rearranged in the 1100-1135 reign of King Henry I, and the Hundred of Hodnet was merged before 1203 into the Hundred of Bradford. When Bradford was divided, Weston was in North Bradford.

Hawkstone Park

consists of 100 acres (40 ha) of

follies ''Follies'' is a Musical theater, musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman. The plot takes place in a crumbling Broadway theater, now scheduled for demolition, previously home to a musical revue (based on t ...

and landscaped parkland grounds and rocky outcrops, based around the authentic Norman castle of Red Castle. The history of Hawkstone Park stretches back almost 800 years. In 1227

Henry de Audley Henry Audley (or Aldithel or Alditheley; c. 1175–1246) was an English baron. Audley was a royalist baron, born about 1175 to Adam de Alditheley and Emma, daughter of Ralph/Radulphus fitzOrm. His father Adam held Alditheley ( Staffordshire) fro ...

, Sheriff of Shropshire and Staffordshire, built a sandstone castle on a natural outcrop of rock that was flanked on all sides by wide valleys. Hawkstone house, also known as the 'Great Hill', was established by

Richard Hill of Hawkstone Richard Hill of Hawkstone Hall, Shropshire, was baptised at Hodnet, Shropshire, on 23 March 1655 and died unmarried at Richmond, Surrey, on 11 June 1727, aged 72. He was known as 'the Great Hill', diplomatist, public servant and statesman, who a ...

(1655-1727) . There is a legend that one of the caves of Hawkstone Park was the burial ground of

King Arthur King Arthur ( cy, Brenin Arthur, kw, Arthur Gernow, br, Roue Arzhur) is a legendary king of Britain, and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In the earliest traditions, Arthur appears as a ...

1968 siege

In 1968 a farmer named John James held a woman hostage in a derelict cottage just north of the village. The siege lasted for 17 days, with James shooting at photographers and an armoured car sent in by the Army. The siege ended when the hostage threw James's shotgun out of a window, which allowed soldiers and police to storm the cottage. It remains the longest siege of a wanted person in UK history.

Transport

The village is just east of the A49, linking it with nearby

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

. The nearest railway station is Wem, with a usually two-hourly service south to

and north to

Crewe Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston ...

. There are two bus stops in Weston, opposite and adjacent to the church, connecting the village with Shrewsbury and Wem.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weston-Under-Redcastle Villages in Shropshire Civil parishes in Shropshire