Whittington Castle

Whittington Castle
Shropshire, England
Whittington Castle in 2016
Whittington Castle is located in Shropshire
Whittington Castle
Whittington Castle
Coordinates52°52′23″N 3°00′15″W / 52.8731°N 3.0043°W / 52.8731; -3.0043
Grid referencegrid reference SJ325311
TypeCastle
Site information
ConditionRuined

Whittington Castle is a castle in northern Shropshire, England, owned and managed by the Whittington Castle Preservation Fund. The castle was originally a motte-and-bailey castle, but this was replaced in the 13th century by one with buildings around a courtyard whose exterior wall was the curtain wall of the inner bailey. As a castle of the Welsh Marches, it was built on the border of Wales and England very close to the historic fort of Old Oswestry.[1][2]

Whittington Castle resides on a 12-acre (49,000 m2) property in the village of Whittington, in the district of North Shropshire, in the county of Shropshire in England. It abuts Castle Road.[2]

In 2003, a historical and archaeological investigation by Peter Brown and Peter King identified that the outer bailey of the castle had been two elaborate gardens and surrounded by water in the 14th century. This discovery was significant in that it proved the advanced state (as compared to those of the French or Flemish) of English gardening habits. The "lavish" garden was installed by one of the FitzWarin family. The viewing mound in the centre may be the oldest of its type yet discovered in England.[3][4]

  1. ^ a b "Whittington Castle website". 2012. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  2. ^ Brown, King and Remfry, pp. 114–5.
  3. ^ Guest, Gill (25 January 2003), "Escape from castle stenches", Times, The (United Kingdom): 11, EBSCO Accession Number 7EH0331468242