Red Castle in Shropshire

By Chester Chronicle on Jan 29, 09 01:25 PM in 2000 onwards

This description of Red Castle in Shropshire is a further extract from Castles of Shropshire by Peter and Anne Duckers.

THE authors describe the Red Castle ruin as "an interesting site that deserves to be better known since it utilises natural features in a way which is seen nowhere else in the county".

THE authors describe this ruin as "an interesting site that deserves to be better known since it utilises natural features in a way which is seen nowhere else in the county".

It presumably succeeded the castle at Weston, 600 metres to its south west. The manor, originally a Peverel holding, reverted to the Crown by 1130 and was held for a time by the le Strange family, then the Audleys in the late 12th Century.

Henry de Aldithele, Sheriff of Shropshire and Staffordshire, obtained the site from Maud le Strange in 1227 and was given a licence to "erect at Radeclif a castle".

In 1238 it was reported to be in good repair, but little is known of its history. It is thought to have been abandoned by 1386 following the death of James, Lord Audley, and Henry VIII bought it from the family in 1536.

It passed to the Corbets in the late 16th Century and may have played a role in the Civil War, briefly housing a parliamentary garrison in 1645, possibly holding prisoners of war.

Red Castle passed the Hill family of nearby Hawkstone Hall in the 18th Century and its ruins were "improved" as part of the land- scaping of the park in the 1780s. It now stands on the edge of the golf course at Hawkstone.

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