Bishops Castle

I’m 2017 McMillan & Holder were asked to restore a collapsed section of the wall formerly defining the outer North wall of the castle. Pictured below

 This was a motte castle, probably originating from the 12th century. A shell enclosure was constructed at a later date, and the remaining fragments of stonework down the slope of the motte suggest that there was probably a wall connecting the shell to a curtain round the bailey. Fragments can be seen near the Castle Hotel.

Documented history begins in Saxon times for Bishop’s Castle when Edwin Shakehead, grateful for being miraculously cured of the palsy at Saint Ethelbert’s tomb in Hereford Cathedral gave part of his lands to the incumbent Bishop of Hereford. A successive Bishop of Hereford built a castle, originally a motte and bailey design, in 1087 to defend the church and village from the threat of the Welsh. The castle has been under attack several times, not always by Welsh raiders, most notably in 1263 when John Fitzalan, Lord of Arundel and feudal Lord of Oswestry and Clun, held it under siege.

In the Early Middle Ages the castle and parish were situated partly in Wales and partly in England so territorial disputes literally ‘came with the territory!

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