Wattlesborough Castle, Remains Of, Adjoining Wattlesborough To North West

Wattlesborough Castle, remains of, adjoining Wattlesborough Hall to north-west

This is a castle, remains of, probably dating to the late 13th century and built for Sir Robert Corbet (died 1300), with alterations probably from the 14th or 15th centuries, the 16th century, and later periods. The structure is built of dressed red sandstone, with a wing of roughly squared and coursed Alberbury breccia and red sandstone rubble with dressings. The wing has an altered mono-pitch corrugated iron roof. The main feature is a square keep or tower with a wing extending to the north-east. Originally it consisted of two storeys with an undercroft and a first-floor hall, probably with a former external stair to the south-east. A later storey was added within the parapet height, and there is a one-storey wing. The structure has a battered plinth with a chamfered top course, a chamfered string course, and setback pilaster buttresses. An integral lateral stack to the south-east has an 18th or 19th century brick stop stage, which was latterly used as a flue for fireplaces in the north-west end of Wattlesborough Hall.

On the north-east front are the remains of a former first-floor hall window with two chamfered round-arched lights, a probably 14th-century inserted first-floor window consisting of a single chamfered ogee-headed light with trefoils in the spandrels and a returned hoodmould, and a probably 16th or 17th-century ground-floor double-chamfered square window with a returned hoodmould. There is a fireplace on the first floor to the left, inserted when the north-east wing was added, with double chamfer; the outer part is square-headed while the inner part forms a Tudor arch and rests on a corbel to the right. A later inserted doorway between the first floor of the tower and the wing has a segmental brick head and brick infill above.

The north-west front has a first-floor hall window altered in the 14th century with a square head, moulded reveals, and the remains of tracery for two cusped ogee-headed lights. There is also a former garderobe to the left with two large cantilevered brackets and raking brackets beneath, now blocked with brick. A probably inserted one-light first-floor window with a depressed ogee head and chamfered reveals is also visible here.

The south-east front is mostly obscured by the adjoining farmhouse roof, but a second-floor window with a square head, panelled tracery, and hoodmould with circular stops is visible above it. Two small staircase windows are present in a buttress to the right. The first-floor hall was probably reached by external steps to an entrance on this front, now obscured by the house. There was a separate entrance to the undercroft on this front, now blocked.

The south-west front has a blocked first-floor hall window consisting of two chamfered round-arched lights with a transom, and a rainwater spout to the right with a small square window below it.

The north-east wing was formerly two storeys with a gabled roof. Its south-east front has a central 20th-century two-light wooden casement, a small round-arched window to the right, and a boarded door to the left. There is a chamfered plinth at the north-east end and the remains of a buttress with a chamfered offset and gabled top. The south-west front was rebuilt with corrugated iron cladding.

The interior is gutted and roofless. Former first-floor hall windows have round rear arches. A corbel table and gabled weathering with a carved stop marks where the former first-floor hall roof met the wall. A blocked former undercroft entrance on the south-east has a chamfered rear arch. There is a probably 16th-century inserted moulded fireplace to the hall. Joist holes and the remains of a beam from a later inserted second floor are visible. A chamfered Tudor-arched fireplace, also an insertion, belongs to the former second floor. There are two first-floor niches, one round-arched and one ogee-arched, a spiral staircase, and a wall passage to the north-east.

Wattlesborough Castle passed to the Leighton family around 1501 and was their chief residence until around 1711. Despite its probable late 13th-century date, the tower has the appearance of a small 12th-century keep. It has been suggested that Sir Robert Corbet might have built the tower as "a conscious anachronism .... to assert his ...., kinship with the families who dominated the area .... from the great castles of Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Clun and Caus" (J.J. West 1981). Earlier authorities state that it is 12th-century. If it is late 13th-century, the tower provides an interesting comparison with Acton Burnell Castle, which is a fortified manor house of the same date also with a first-floor hall, but where it is reached by an internal stair. There is an engraving in the adjoining farmhouse showing a former, probably medieval, wing on its site, some materials from which might have been reused. Old photographs show the tower with a probably 19th-century pyramidal slate roof and the wing still of two storeys with a pitched roof.