Whittington Castle: A Welsh Marches Fortress in Shropshire
Site at a Glance
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- United Kingdom
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- English
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page10 sections
History
Whittington Castle is a ruined medieval fortress in Whittington, United Kingdom, built and developed by Norman and marcher lords on the English side of Offa’s Dyke. The site became a Welsh Marches stronghold, guarding the frontier between England and Wales near the historic fort of Old Oswestry. Its earliest form may have been a Norman manor house, although that possibility remains unproven.
Norman origins and the frontier
William Peverel fortified Whittington in 1138 during the Anarchy, the civil war in England in which Empress Matilda contested King Stephen’s claim to the throne. The first fortification was therefore connected with the struggle for royal power as well as with the defence of the border. Around 1149, the lordship of Whittington, together with those of Oswestry and Overton, was annexed by Madog ap Maredudd and incorporated into the medieval Welsh Kingdom of Powys.
In 1165 Henry II granted the castle to Roger de Powys and provided money for repairs around 1173. Roger was followed as lord by his son Meurig, also known as Maurice, and then by Meurig’s son Werennoc. These changes placed the fortress within the shifting political landscape of the Marches, where authority could move between the English crown and powerful Welsh rulers.
The FitzWarin lordship
Fulk III FitzWarin claimed Whittington on behalf of the Peverel interest, but his claim was not recognized until 1204. His subsequent rebellion against King John was pardoned, and he received the castle and lordship of Whittington as a feudal holding, excluding Overton Castle. The lordship then descended through the FitzWarin family. Its successive lords were named Fulk, a line that continued until the death of Fulk XI FitzWarin in 1420.
Llywelyn ab Iorwerth of Gwynedd, known as Llywelyn the Great, captured and destroyed the castle in 1223. A peace treaty returned it, after which the fortress was rebuilt in stone. For approximately the following half-century it served as a defensive base for Shropshire against Welsh invasions. A later treaty ceded it to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the prince of Wales who was defeated during Edward I’s conquest of Wales in 1282–1283. After that conquest, Whittington again became a lordly residence of the FitzWarin family.
Decline of the medieval stronghold
After Fulk VII FitzWarin died in 1349, the castle entered a prolonged period in which its hereditary lords were usually minors and generally lived elsewhere. Repairs were carried out around 1402, but the lordship suffered heavily during the rebellion led by Owain Glyndŵr against English rule. It was devastated in 1404 and was valued at nothing by 1407, although the castle itself was not captured.
During Fulk XI FitzWarin’s minority, his mother occupied the castle with her new husband, William Lord Clinton. A dispute arose after people from Oswestry felled oak trees in the castle’s woods. When Fulk XI died in 1420, the FitzWarin line ended in the male line and the lordship passed to his sister Elizabeth, who married Richard Hankeford. In 1422 William FitzWarin, probably a cousin claiming the castle as the male heir, and Richard Laken seized it by climbing the walls with ladders. This type of assault was known as an escalade. The castle was apparently soon returned to Lord Clinton’s control.
Transfer, decay, and reuse
Thomasia, a member of the FitzWarin inheritance, married William Bourchier, transferring the FitzWarin peerage into the Bourchier family. Their grandson John Bourchier became Earl of Bath. In 1545 his son, John Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Bath, exchanged the lordship and castle with Henry VIII for former monastic estates nearer the family’s home in Devon. Henry VIII was the Tudor king whose policies included the dissolution of the monasteries and redistribution of their lands.
A survey made at the time of the exchange described several buildings as being in decay. Whittington probably ceased to function as a residence after this period and passed through several owners. It later came to William Albany, a London merchant tailor, and then to the Lloyd family of Aston near Oswestry, who held the estate from 1750.
Francis Albany, William Albany’s grandson, fell into debt and sold woodland at Babbinswood to Arthur Kynaston of Shrewsbury. Kynaston used stone from the castle to build a forge at Fernhill. In 1632 the gatehouse was leased, and its tenant was permitted to remove freestone from the castle. By the time of the English Civil War in the 1640s, a series of conflicts between supporters of Parliament and supporters of the monarchy, the castle was evidently no longer defensible. No evidence connects it with the fighting.
In 1673 the castle, or more specifically the gatehouse, was leased as a residence to Thomas Lloyd, probably a retired London merchant. Around 1760 one of the towers fell into the moat. Other parts of the castle were later used for road construction, probably including the turnpike road to Ellesmere built in 1776. Because the castle stood beside the old Holyhead Road and could be seen by travellers, William Lloyd restored the gatehouse around 1808 and leased it as a farmhouse. It remained occupied as a house until the 1990s.
Preservation and historical traditions
The Whittington Castle Preservation Trust, a rural community trust, was formed in December 1998. It obtained a 99-year lease in 2002 and manages the castle, completing a major renovation project that secured the surviving remains and their interpretation.
Whittington is also associated with traditions surrounding the Marian Chalice, which some have identified with the Holy Grail, the legendary cup linked in medieval tradition with the Last Supper and Arthurian romances. One version of the legend makes Sir Fulk FitzWarin, described as a great-grandson of Payne Peverel, one of the Grail’s guardians associated with King Arthur. A thirteenth-century story places the Grail in a private chapel at the castle during Sir Fulk’s residence. Another tradition claims that Whittington belonged to the Welsh nobleman Tudor Trefor, or Tudor Trevor, in both Maelors. Although Tudor’s father, Rhys Sais, held Maelor Saesneg, the wider claim appears to have been invented by Lewis Dwnn in 1846.
Remains
Fortifications and surviving buildings
Whittington Castle occupies a 12-acre, approximately 49,000-square-metre estate in the village of Whittington, beside Castle Road and the old line of the Holyhead Road. The ruined complex began as a motte-and-bailey castle, a fortification formed from a raised earth mound and an adjoining enclosed courtyard. In the thirteenth century this arrangement was replaced by a stone castle organized around a courtyard. Its outer wall served as the curtain wall, the enclosing defensive wall of the inner bailey.
The reconstructed inner bailey stood on raised ground surrounded by a moat. Buildings were arranged along the curtain wall, and five towers formed part of the inner bailey. Beyond the moat stood an outer gatehouse, or barbican, an additional defensive structure protecting the entrance. The stone reconstruction replaced the earlier tower keep, changing the castle from a fortification focused on a central mound into a courtyard complex with buildings along its enclosing wall.
The outer bailey gardens
A historical and archaeological investigation in 2003 established that the outer bailey contained two elaborate gardens surrounded by water during the fourteenth century. A viewing mound stood at the centre of the garden complex. It may be the oldest example of this type discovered in England. The gardens were attributed to a member of the FitzWarin family and have been interpreted as evidence that English gardening was highly advanced in comparison with gardening in France and Flanders at the time.
The gatehouse and later fabric
The gatehouse was restored around 1808 for use as a farmhouse and remained a residential building until the 1990s. Its later domestic use forms part of the castle’s surviving physical history, while the wider ruins retain evidence of the medieval courtyard fortress and its surrounding moat. Stone was removed from the complex for the forge at Fernhill and for road construction, and one tower collapsed into the moat around 1760.
The coat of arms of Fulk FitzWarin hangs above the castle archway. The private chapel associated with the Marian Chalice belongs to the castle’s legendary history, while the surviving architectural description concerns the gatehouse, towers, courtyard, walls, moat, and outer-bailey gardens.
