Shrewsbury Castle
Shrewsbury Castle occupies a commanding position on a sandstone hill above a tight loop of the River Severn that encloses the historic town of Shrewsbury on three sides. The river's natural defensive moat and the castle's hilltop position made Shrewsbury one of the most strongly defended border towns in medieval England, an important outpost in the long centuries of conflict between the English crown and the Welsh princes who controlled the territory to the west. The castle was founded by Roger de Montgomery, one of William the Conqueror's most powerful followers, shortly after the conquest of England in 1066. The red sandstone from which it was built is the characteristic building material of the Welsh Marches region, and the colour gives Shrewsbury's medieval buildings a distinctive warm quality quite different from the limestone castles of southern England or the granite of the north. The original motte and bailey construction was gradually replaced with stone buildings over the following centuries. Henry II strengthened the castle substantially, and Edward I used it as a base for his campaigns to subdue Wales in the 1280s. The town was the scene of the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, one of the most significant engagements of the medieval period, at which Henry IV defeated and killed Henry Percy (Hotspur) and crushed the rebellion that had threatened to topple his throne. Shakespeare dramatised these events in Henry IV Part One with considerable theatrical licence. The castle was remodelled as a residential house in the late seventeenth century by Sir William Pulteney to designs associated with Thomas Telford, the great civil engineer who spent considerable time in Shrewsbury early in his career. This conversion gave the castle a more domestic character while preserving the historic outer walls and the distinctive Laura's Tower, an eighteenth-century summer house built within the castle grounds. Today the castle houses the Shropshire Regimental Museum, which tells the story of the county's military regiments from the late seventeenth century to the present day. The castle grounds are freely accessible during daylight hours and provide excellent views across the town and the River Severn below.