Hopton Castle is situated in the village of the same name which lies approximately halfway between Knighton and

Craven Arms Craven Arms is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire, England, on the A49 road and the Welsh Marches railway line, which link it north and south to the larger towns of Shrewsbury and Ludlow respectively. The Heart of Wales railway l ...

, in the English county of

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 ...

. Hopton Castle featured in the British TV series ''

Time Team ''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned online in 2022 for two episodes released on YouTube. Created by television producer Tim ...

'' in 2010. A ruin since the early 18th century, it was partially restored between 2006 and 2011, and was officially re-opened to the public as a visitor attraction in December 2011 by the Duke of Gloucester.

Norman castle

The castle may have been founded in the 12th century as a motte and bailey by one of the Hoptons as a

mesne lord A mesne lord () was a lord in the feudal system who had vassals who held land from him, but who was himself the vassal of a higher lord. Owing to '' Quia Emptores'', the concept of a mesne lordship technically still exists today: the partitioni ...

of the Says of

Clun Castle Clun Castle is a medieval ruined castle in Clun, Shropshire, England. Clun Castle was established by the Norman lord Robert de Say after the Norman invasion of England and went on to become an important Marcher lord castle in the 12th century, ...

. Walter de Hopton possibly built the stone castle during the Barons' War of the 1260s. The bailey was fortified in stone and a rectangular two-storey keep was built. The last Walter Hopton died during the

Wars of the Roses The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These wars were fought bet ...

and the castle passed by marriage to the Corbet family of

Moreton Corbet castle Moreton Corbet Castle is a ruined medieval castle and Elizabethan era manor house, located near the village of Moreton Corbet, Shropshire, England. It is a Grade I listed building and English Heritage property. Although out of use since the 18th ...

. From them it passed to

Henry Wallop (died 1642) Sir Henry Wallop (18 October 1568 – 14 November 1642) of Farleigh House, Hampshire was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1597 and 1642. Wallop was the eldest son of Sir Henry Wallop of Farleigh Wall ...

when he married Elizabeth Corbet, daughter of

Robert Corbet Captain Robert Corbet RN (died 13 September 1810), often spelled Corbett, was an officer of the British Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars who was killed in action in highly controversial circumstances. Corbet was ...

. He fortified it as a parliamentary stronghold at the outbreak of the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

but died before he could take part in the conflict, leaving it to his son,

Robert Wallop Robert Wallop (20 July 1601 – 19 November 1667) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times from 1621 to 1660. He supported the Parliamentary cause in the English Civil War and was one of the regicides of King Char ...

, the regicide.

Civil War siege, assault and massacre

During the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

Hopton Castle was one of the few castles to be held for the

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

in the west. In 1644 Sir Michael Woodhouse, with a force of about 500, laid

siege A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characteriz ...

to the castle which was defended by about thirty Roundheads under the command of

Samuel More Samuel More (1593–1662) was an English man who was at the centre of two historical incidents in 17th-century England. In the first, he arranged for the removal of his children to the New World aboard the ''Mayflower''; later, during the English ...

. More eventually agreed terms and surrendered. There are varying versions of what happened next. According to More's account all those who surrendered, apart from himself, were killed and buried. Other accounts vary on how the siege ended. They state that after a three-week siege, More delayed surrendering until the bailey had been taken and the entrance to the keep was on fire, at which point the garrison surrendered to Sir Michael Woodhouse, who at his discretion (his prerogative under the laws of war as they were practised at that time), decided not to grant the majority of his prisoners

quarter A quarter is one-fourth, , 25% or 0.25. Quarter or quarters may refer to: Places * Quarter (urban subdivision), a section or area, usually of a town Placenames * Quarter, South Lanarkshire, a settlement in Scotland * Le Quartier, a settlement ...

and they were killed by their captors. The castle was still habitable in 1700, but fell into disrepair soon afterwards. Substantial remnants of the much altered keep remain.

Restoration

Hopton Castle Preservation Trust

In November 2008 the Hopton Castle Preservation Trust (founded in 2006) took ownership of the castle. The trust recently raised one million pounds, half of which was a grant from the National Lottery to fund conservation work and secure a future for the site. (See conservation and repair).

''Time Team''

The castle was the subject of a ''

'' excavation and episode, appearing in series 17 of the long-running

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...

television programme, as episode 6 ("The Massacre in the Cellar") of that series, and broadcast on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

on 16 May 2010. The remaining castle keep was excavated over three days by ''Time Team'', clarifying the shape of the castle and the history of its construction. The keep had been captured by the Royalists during the

. No evidence of a massacre was found. ''Time Team'' had previously excavated and filmed at

High Ercall High Ercall, also known in the past as Ercall Magna, is a village in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England. The civil parish is still called Ercall Magna, and had a total population of 1,679 at the 2001 ce ...

, another Civil War site in Shropshire.

Conservation and repair

The conservation and repair of the ruin, funded principally by The

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

and

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

was the culmination of many years of campaigning and fund raising on the part of the new owners, The Hopton Castle Preservation Trust. The works entailed significant structural stabilisation and rebuilding of the masonry and conservation of surviving medieval plaster. During this time a sophisticated and possibly unique garderobe chamber was revealed. As a result of evidence discovered within this chamber it is now believed that a siege breach may have taken place here.

The Conservation Project Team

* Project Manager: Rayska Heritage * Architects: Wheatley lloyd Architects & John C Goom * Engineers: Shire Consulting * Archeologist: Richard K Morriss * Contractor: Conservation Building Services Ltd

Notes and references

External links

Hopton Castle Preservation Trust
* http://www.cbsconservation.co.uk/ {{coord, 52.3958, -2.9318, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Castles in Shropshire Ruins in Shropshire Grade I listed buildings in Shropshire Tourist attractions in Shropshire Massacres during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms Massacres in 1644