Oswestry Castle

Oswestry Castle stands on a grassy motte in the market town of Oswestry, Shropshire. The mound rises about twelve metres and measures fifty-two metres by seventy-two metres at its base. The town grew around the castle after the Normans built it in the 11th century. Early records call it castelle Lurve or castle L’oeuvre, names linked to its white stone. By the 13th century the castle’s walls enclosed the town, forming a single defended area. The bailey south of the motte later became the nucleus for streets named Bailey Street and Bailey Head. The castle’s history shows repeated changes of control between English and Welsh rulers. Rainald, Sheriff of Shropshire, built the first stronghold recorded in 1086. During the civil war of Stephen and Matilda the lord William FitzAlan lost the castle but regained it after Henry II’s accession. Welsh princes such as Madog ap Maredudd and Llywelyn the Great attacked it in the 12th and 13th centuries. Royalist troops held it in the Civil War until Oliver Cromwell’s forces captured and slighted it by 1650. Visitors today see the grassy motte and the ruined stone keep on top. The keep’s remains include fragments of a hall, chapel, kitchen and three chambers noted in a 1398 inventory. To the south-east stands a rebuilt bastion from the late 19th century. Sections of curtain wall and gate piers survive, all protected as Grade II listed structures. The bailey area south of the motte is now open ground, marked by street names that recall its original purpose.