Houses of Interest: Shropshire
Yet another major update for the Shropshire entry (makes a change from all the Scottish travelogue entries of late). Shropshire was, pretty much, a hot bed of Royalist support. The ECW travelogue takes in not just those sites associated with the fighting of the Wars, but also the many places that claim to have helped save the life of the future Charles II. And, of course, an infamous oak tree. I’ve wanted to visit Stokesay Castle ever since I discovered that it was in fact a real castle and not somewhere made up (I grew up on an estate where all the road names were named after castles, guess which castle my road was named after). The gatehouse at Stokesay has to be up in the premier league of timber framed buildings Cared for by English Heritage, Stokesay Castle is "one of the best-preserved medieval fortified manor houses in England" (English Heritage castle expert Dr Henry Summerson - makes a change from the traditional quote from Pevsner). A seemingly eclectic building pr...