Bishop's Castle
Encyclopedia
Bishop's Castle is a small market town
Market town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...

 in Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, and formerly its smallest borough
Borough
A borough is an administrative division in various countries. In principle, the term borough designates a self-governing township although, in practice, official use of the term varies widely....

. According to the 2001 census
United Kingdom Census 2001
A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....

 it had a population of 1,630. Bishop's Castle is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) east of the Wales-England border, about 20 mile north-west of Ludlow
Ludlow
Ludlow is a market town in Shropshire, England close to the Welsh border and in the Welsh Marches. It lies within a bend of the River Teme, on its eastern bank, forming an area of and centred on a small hill. Atop this hill is the site of Ludlow Castle and the market place...

 and about 20 mile south-west of Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England. Lying on the River Severn, it is a civil parish home to some 70,000 inhabitants, and is the primary settlement and headquarters of Shropshire Council...

. To the south is Clun
Clun
Clun is a small town in Shropshire, England. The town is located entirely in the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The 2001 census recorded 642 people living in the town...

 and to the east is Church Stretton
Church Stretton
Church Stretton is a small town and civil parish in Shropshire, England. The population of the town was recorded as 2,789 in 2001, whilst the population of the wider parish was recorded as 4,186...

. The town is best known as a thriving market town with a strong agricultural community and has more recently become known for its alternative community including artists, musicians, writers and craftspeople. This is excellent walking
Hillwalking
In the British Isles, the terms hillwalking or fellwalking are commonly used to describe the recreational outdoor activity of walking on hills and mountains, often with the intention of visiting their summits...

 country and Bishop's Castle is a "Walkers are Welcome Town", gaining the award in 2008. The long distance footpath the Shropshire Way
Shropshire Way
The Shropshire Way is a waymarked long distance footpath running through the English county of Shropshire. It runs 224 kilometres / 139 miles around the interior of the county in a large loop.- The Waymarked Route :...

 runs through the town and Offa's Dyke
Offa's Dyke
Offa's Dyke is a massive linear earthwork, roughly followed by some of the current border between England and Wales. In places, it is up to wide and high. In the 8th century it formed some kind of delineation between the Anglian kingdom of Mercia and the Welsh kingdom of Powys...

 is only a few miles away to the west. The ancient trackway
Ancient trackway
Ancient trackway can refer to any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity. Such paths existed from the earliest prehistoric times and in every inhabited part of the globe...

 of the Kerry Ridgeway, a prehistoric Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

 route, runs from the town. The BC Ring, a 60 miles (96.6 km) challenging route around the town, was published in 2008. The town has two micro-breweries, many pubs and eating places and a wide variety of places to stay in the town itself and the surrounding countryside.

The castle

Documented history begins in Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...

 times for Bishop's Castle when Edwin Shakehead, grateful for being miraculously cured of the palsy at Saint Ethelbert's tomb in Hereford Cathedral
Hereford Cathedral
The current Hereford Cathedral, located at Hereford in England, dates from 1079. Its most famous treasure is Mappa Mundi, a mediæval map of the world dating from the 13th century. The cathedral is a Grade I listed building.-Origins:...

 gave part of his lands to the incumbent Bishop of Hereford
Bishop of Hereford
The Bishop of Hereford is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Hereford in the Province of Canterbury.The see is in the City of Hereford where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of Saint Mary and Saint Ethelbert which was founded as a cathedral in 676.The Bishop's residence is...

. 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
Welsh people
The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...

, . The castle has been under attack several times, not always by Welsh raiders, most notably in 1263 when John Fitzalan, 6th Earl of Arundel
John FitzAlan, 6th Earl of Arundel
John FitzAlan , Lord of Oswestry and Clun, and de jure Earl of Arundel, was a Breton-English nobleman and Marcher Lord with lands in the Welsh Marches.-Family:...

 and Lord of Oswestry
Oswestry
Oswestry is a town and civil parish in Shropshire, England, close to the Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5, A483, and A495 roads....

 and Clun
Clun
Clun is a small town in Shropshire, England. The town is located entirely in the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The 2001 census recorded 642 people living in the town...

, held it under siege and caused significant damage, the damage was estimated at 1,060 marks.
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'.

In 1557 the castle was described as follows: "thirteen rooms covered with lead, a tower on the outer wall on the eastern side containing a stable, and two rooms covered with tiles. There were two other rooms called 'le new buyldinge' situated on the outer wall between the building over the gate and the tower called 'le prison tower'. There was also a dovecote, a garden, a forest and a park."

As peace came to the Welsh Marches
Welsh Marches
The Welsh Marches is a term which, in modern usage, denotes an imprecisely defined area along and around the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom. The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods...

 Bishop's Castle became one of the notorious rotten boroughs, an electorally corrupt situation wherein the tiny borough elected two Members of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 from 1585.

In 1618 the castle started to deteriorate and in the 1700s the stone keep and surroundings were flattened to make a bowling green, (Some historians believe that the houses along Market Square and Castle Street were built on the foundations on an outer wall due to the curvature of the houses).

In 1719 - the fifth year of the reign of George I and the year Daniel Defoe published Robinson Crusoe - the Castle Hotel was constructed over the site of the old baille [the French word for an enclosed court] of the ancient castle. It was built on the orders of a local landowner, James Brydges [1673-1744], who in the year the hotel was completed was created Duke of Chandos. In an age of unabashed corruption, he acquired a number of lucrative sinecure offices and amassed such wealth that he was known as ‘Princely Chandos’.

The 1st Duke of Chandos sold the Castle Hotel to John Walcot who in turn sold it to Robert Clive [1725-1774], known as ‘Clive of India’, who amassed such wealth during his time in that country that Horace Walpole writing from London to a country friend said: ‘you will be frightened by the dearness of everything ... I expect that a pint of milk will soon not be sold under a diamond, and then nobody can keep a cow but my Lord Clive’. From Viscount Clive the hotel descended to his son, Edward, who changed the family name to Herbert, his mother’s maiden name, and took his father’s subsidiary title of Earl of Powis.

In 1642, the Three Tuns Brewery
Three Tuns Brewery
The Three Tuns Brewery is a brewery in Bishop's Castle, Shropshire, England, established in 1642 on its current site, making it the oldest licensed brewery site in Britain...

 was established on its current site, making it the oldest licensed brewery site in Britain. While some of the current building dates to the seventeenth century, the main building is a Victorian tower brewery erected about 1888.

Local landowners, including Robert Clive expended large sums of cash buying votes, a common practice at the time in some areas to ensure a seat in Parliament. In 1726 one unsuccessful parliamentary candidate was subsequently able to prove that of the 52 people voting for his rival, the incumbent MP, 51 had received bribes and inducements. The Reform Act 1832
Reform Act 1832
The Representation of the People Act 1832 was an Act of Parliament that introduced wide-ranging changes to the electoral system of England and Wales...

 eradicated this practice and Bishops Castle was disenfranchised.

All that is physically left of the castle today is a 10 m long, coursed stone wall on the west side of the castle site which is 2 m thick and 3 m high. It was overgrown with ivy and was recently renovated to keep it safe and stable.

The town

The layout of the town in the present day shows that originally the town was made up of 46 burgage
Burgage
Burgage is a medieval land term used in England and Scotland, well established by the 13th century. A burgage was a town rental property , owned by a king or lord. The property usually, and distinctly, consisted of a house on a long and narrow plot of land, with the narrow end facing the street...

 plots which were separated by a few small lanes which have developed to be Church Street, Union Street and Station Street.

In 1249 a Royal Charter
Royal Charter
A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and...

 for a weekly market and an annual fair was granted, they are both still very popular, with a Friday market in the town hall and a May fair in the playing fields.

In the 1600s, the town hall was constructed as a new administrative centre, a court and possibly a prison.

The town was classified as a municipal borough
Municipal borough
Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002...

 in 1885. It lost this status in the 1960s, but still has a mayor and its regalia. It is now a "Quality Town Council".

Bishop's Castle was close to the epicentre of a magnitude 5.1 earthquake
1990 Bishop's Castle earthquake
The 1990 Bishop's Castle earthquake was an earthquake that hit near the town of Bishop's Castle, Shropshire, England on 2 April 1990.-Location, date and time:...

 on April 2, 1990, which was felt throughout much of England and Wales.

Today the town forms a civil parish, with its own town council
Town council
A town council is a democratically elected form of government for small municipalities or civil parishes. A council may serve as both the representative and executive branch....

 and mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

.

Landmarks

Although it is smaller than many villages, Bishop's Castle has plenty of facilities for residents and tourists, coffee houses, cafés and restaurants, the House on Crutches, a museum of country life, and the Rail & Transport Museum, the two micro-breweries, the old cattle market in the centre of the town, for example. Beyond that, there is a significant number and variety of shops, local businesses and services ranging from clothes shops to the usual high street banks. The town is notable for a thriving selection of specialist retailers.

There are several public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...

s in the town, including two micro-breweries: the Six Bells Brewery painted yellow, and the Three Tuns Brewery, now owned by the John Roberts Brewery company. Additionally, the town sports a number of restaurants and Bed and Breakfast
Bed and breakfast
A bed and breakfast is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast, but usually does not offer other meals. Since the 1980s, the meaning of the term has also extended to include accommodations that are also known as "self-catering" establishments...

s, and a hotel, The Castle Hotel, built on the site of the outer bailey of the old Bishops Castle. Sights in the town include Bishop's Castle Town Hall, the House on Crutches and the town's two breweries. Many properties are painted in various colourful hues of blue, pink, yellow and green.

Culture

The town has a few events throughout the year in which the High Street is closed and processions, stalls and entertainment is held. Four main festivals are: the Carnival
Carnival
Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...

 - 1st Sunday in July. The Beer Festival
Beer festival
A Beer Festival is an organised event during which a variety of beers are available for tasting and purchase. Beer festivals are held in a number of countries...

  the Friday and Saturday after the Carnival, Michelmas Fair - the end of September and the Christmas Lights Festival on the first Saturday in December.

The music scene is vibrant and the town is renowned locally for this thriving musical environment. There are five main venues situated in the town: the Three Tuns, the Public Hall, the Vaults, the Church Barn, and the Six Bells.

Classical concerts are put on at nearby Walcot Hall. There is a Town marching band which plays at important civic events. There is a local samba band that plays at town events. A local youth organisation, Spot Light, puts on monthly concerts and music workshops. Many more local bands and musicians are associated with this organisation. There are many DJs
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...

 in the area, playing a variety of styles.

The Shropshire Bedlams & Martha Rhoden's Tuppenny Dish Morris Teams are based in Bishop's Castle and meet at the Three Tuns Inn and Lydbury North Village Hall every week.

Education

The town also possesses a community college
Community college
A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries.-Australia:Community colleges carry on the tradition of adult education, which was established in Australia around mid 19th century when evening classes were held to help adults...

/sixth form
Sixth form
In the education systems of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and of Commonwealth West Indian countries such as Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Jamaica and Malta, the sixth form is the final two years of secondary education, where students, usually sixteen to eighteen years of age,...

, which teaches 11 to 18 year-olds from the town and surrounding villages. It currently has just under 600 students. It also has a primary school.

Cricket

1st XI play in Division 2 of the Shropshire Cricket League, the 2nd XI play in Division 6, and the club plays friendlies on Sundays, with regular coaching sessions and matches for school age children. Cricket was first recorded in 1841, and the club was officially formed in 1896 at a meeting held in the Six Bells public house.
The 1st XI equalled their highest ever finish of 4th this season (previously achieved in 2009) with a record points total of 332.
The Clubs social base is the Castle Hotel off Market Square.

Football

Bishop's Castle Town FC play in the Shropshire County League
Shropshire County Premier Football League
The Shropshire County Premier Football League is an English association football league based in the county of Shropshire...

 Division One. Previously (before moving to the County League in 2010) they played in Division 1 of the Montgomeryshire Amateur League, having gained promotion from Division 2 in the early 1990s, and having joined Division 2 in 1984-85. Before that they played in various leagues including the South Shropshire League and the West Shropshire Alliance. The Club was formed in the 1880s.
The Clubs Social Base after matches and for meetings is The Kings Head Public House in Church Street, the Club play their Home matches at the Community College ground on Colebatch Road.

Rugby

Bishop's Castle and Onny Valley Rugby Club was formed in the late 1970s and spent the early years playing friendly games against teams from Mid-Wales and Shropshire, before joining the league structure in the early 1990s. Now they play in Midlands Division Three North.
  • Women's Hockey
  • Squash
  • Tennis

Transport

Bishop's Castle has been on a main route for travellers since prehistoric times, although the town was bypassed in the 19th century by Thomas Telford
Thomas Telford
Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE was a Scottish civil engineer, architect and stonemason, and a noted road, bridge and canal builder.-Early career:...

's great road. The inns would have provided accommodation for travellers and have stabled their horses.

There is no main road running through the town, though the A488
A488 road
The A488 is a route on the British highway network that runs from Penybont, near Llandrindod Wells, in Wales, to Shrewsbury, Shropshire, in England. Near Shrewsbury the A488 has a junction with the A5 trunk road...

 runs north-south just to the east of the town, on its way from Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England. Lying on the River Severn, it is a civil parish home to some 70,000 inhabitants, and is the primary settlement and headquarters of Shropshire Council...

, Pontesbury
Pontesbury
Pontesbury is a large village and civil parish in Shropshire and is approximately eight miles southwest of the county town of Shrewsbury. The village of Minsterley is just over a mile further southwest. The A488 road runs through the village, on its way from Shrewsbury to Bishop's Castle...

 and Minsterley
Minsterley
Minsterley is a village and civil parish in Shropshire, England. It is home to a large dairy operated by Uniq foods.The dairy currently employs nearly 500 people...

 to Clun
Clun
Clun is a small town in Shropshire, England. The town is located entirely in the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The 2001 census recorded 642 people living in the town...

 and Knighton. The B4385 runs around the town and connects with the A488.

Bishops Castle had a railway, the Bishops Castle Railway
Bishops Castle Railway
The Bishops Castle Railway was begun in 1861, planned as a line from Craven Arms to Montgomery, thus linking the Shrewsbury to Hereford line to the Oswestry to Newtown, Powys line , linking Mid-Wales and Shrewsbury, with a branch line from Lydham to Bishop's Castle.From the start, the railway was...

, between 1865 and 1935. Originally it was meant to go from Craven Arms
Craven Arms
Craven Arms is a small town and civil parish in Shropshire, England, located on the A49 road and the Welsh Marches railway line, which connect it north and south to the larger towns of Shrewsbury and Ludlow respectively. The Heart of Wales railway line joins the Welsh Marches line at Craven Arms...

 to Montgomery
Montgomery, Powys
The historic county town of Montgomery in Powys, Wales lies just three miles from the English border in the Welsh Marches. It is best known for its castle, Montgomery Castle, begun in 1223, and its parish church, begun in 1227. However its origins go back much further, as seen by the Celtic Iron...

, although it never made it that far as the money ran out. Sections of the old railway can still be seen today, including some of the embankments, bridges and stations. Today the nearest station is Broome
Broome railway station
Broome railway station is a railway station serving the villages of Broome and Aston on Clun, in Shropshire, England. It is situated on the Heart of Wales Line, 22¾ miles south west of...

 on the Heart of Wales Line
Heart of Wales Line
The Heart of Wales Line is a railway line running from Craven Arms in Shropshire to Llanelli in South Wales. It runs, as the name suggests, through some of the heartlands of Wales. It serves a number of rural centres en route, including several once fashionable spa towns, including Llandrindod Wells...

.

There is a limited daytime bus service (#553) on Mondays to Saturdays between Bishops Castle and Shrewsbury Bus Station http://www.minsterley-motors.co.uk/timetable.htm.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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