Our next place of interest took us to the southern edge of the Shropshire hills, being strategically placed and a now crumbled medieval ruin, Hopton castle was besieged in a notorious battle of the English civil war. Join us as we walk the castle and find out what happened on the bloody battlefields and how many of the surrendered troops were brutally killed, this castle is only small but it has a fantastic yet sombre story attached to it.
The civil war divided up the communities between king and parliament, and unfortunately for Hopton, it was right in the firing line, being part of the only stronghold that was held for parliament they were surely to be attacked by the surrounding army of royalist forces. After Being forced inside the castle walls, 31 brave men fought and held out for three weeks against 500 royalist soldiers that continuously attacked them.
The royalist wanted control of Brampton castle, not far from Hopton, and they planned to take Hopton as a base from where they could attack Brampton Bryan castle as a parliamentarian stronghold. With news spreading of this, supporters of the owner Robert Wallop who in 1644 owned Hopton had Colonel Samuel Moore, who was the garrison commander and a small number of troops to take hold of the castle for the parliamentarians.
The royalists retreated leaving a few guards to keep watch, but during this lull of fighting, Major Phillips sent for more men to join the ranks and when they returned a week later with proper summons for surrender, More continued to refuse even though he only had 31 men with him. But time was upon them, up to 500 men attacked and broke through the chimney in the burnt out remains of the house, they had completely breached the castle’s defences and suffered heavy losses. Another week past and more troops turned up with heavy artillery, Moore was warned that if he did not surrender this time before the first shot was fired, he would expect no mercy or quarter. More hand to hand combat followed with the royalists losing up to 150 men whereas Samuel moor said only one of his men died and four were wounded.
Through reading Moore’s diary that he kept, the history is told of detailed accounts of what went on here during the siege. But a letter from primus Davis, who was part of the garrison at nearby Brampton castle, reads that the men inside the castle were driven inside the cellar unfinished, where there was stinking water and the house was on fire over them and every man he saw completely massacred. Implying simply that this is where the men we’re left and possibly the remains of their bodies could still be there today.
The origins of Hopton are that of an earth and timber motte and bailey fortification raised around the late 12th century. It was then built by Walter de Hopton during the baron’s war of the 1260s where the bailey was fortified in stone and a rectangular two storey keep was built. What’s really interesting whilst we walk up into the castle is the front door is completely unprotected and on glancing you can see how thin the walls are around the windows; this would have offered very little protection against an attack.
It’s thought that the castle was built as a high status tower house on the site of an older Norman keep. It was designed to look like an older castle as it would have made a bold statement about it’s wealthy owner Walter de Hopton. The de Hopton’s were tenants of the Earl of Arundel who had recently at the time built a similar tower at nearby Clun castle, it’s more than likely that the de Hopton’s mimicked their landlords design.
The small alcove what was known as the lobby inside just after the porch leads you in a direction to the stairs to get up to the lords private quarters this was a large spiral staircase that connected the two floors and gave access to a roof top walkway. This was closed unfortunately, so we walk straight on into the under croft and what is left of the ruins today to walk around. It’s likely that the ground floor would have been the office of the steward who took charge of running the castle, whilst the first floor hall was of high status where typical of a castle layout, they would have entertained their guests. The private rooms were in the larger south west turret and a second smaller staircase led from the hall to a heated chamber, places above a garderobes with a twin seated toilet this was a very comfortable first floor apartment, worthy of a wealthy family. On the roof they had access to beautiful views, this was with the tall turrets on each corner, back in the day they would have been much taller than what we see.
Although this ruin is very small, and not much remains, this is a perfect example to be able to sit back on the benches the trust have provided and imagine life back in the siege or back when the families lived here. The castle is full of really interesting historical timeframes, and if you watched or watch channel 4’s time team, they had a episode here back in 2009 were they managed to dig, record and film a process of an excavation. They managed to record an amazing few finds including a cannon ball, a roman coin, parts of a musket gun, a human tooth and even a James 1st coin in incredible condition. What I find amazing is that they only dug a tiny fraction of the site and can you imagine how much more still lays under the ground for future archaeologists to find one day.
The castle is free to visit with a small but nice free car park right next to the entrance, with awesome information panels and leaflets to take you around the ruin. Incredibly this place runs on donations to continue to preserve and repair the castle so that we’re all able to experience history on our doorsteps. We would recommended close by Clun castle or the very beautiful Ludlow Castle with it’s gorgeous market town if you are looking for things to do in the area or the incredibly interesting Stokesay castle or simply just a wander along the hills of Church Stretton.
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Till Next Time!
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