Next on our list was Stokesay Castle, owned and managed by English Heritage.  An interesting partial ruin although much of the structure is remarkably still standing and good shape seeing as it was built around 1280.  Described by English Heritage as “the finest and best-preserved fortified medieval manor house in England”, this is not really a castle and would not have presented hindrance to any invading enemy and is better described as a fortified manor house.  The only later addition is the Gatehouse built in 1640.

There was an active 'cauldron' of Bats that were flying around the rafters and a baby Bat stranded on the floor in one of the rooms, but carefully protected by a cardboard box placed there to act as a nest.

It's hard to imagine when you walk round these old castles the people who have lived their lives there and fought in some cases.  English Heritage have done a great job in preserving Stokesay Castle for future generations and have a very interesting guidebook that shows what they probably looked like in the day.

In 1280- 1290s Laurence of Ludlow, a local merchant who had amassed a vast fortune supplying and trading in wool built Stokesay Castle as we see it today. Like many others he made a fortune out of selling high quality wool from the Welsh borders (“Marches”) across England and abroad.  In building his house, Laurence was taking advantage of the newly established peace on the Welsh border, following Edward I's conquest of Wales in 1284. The late 13th century was however a period of increasing activity by bands of thieves and maybe the appearance of the house resembling a castle and the presence of a moat put off minor attackers, bearing in mind that in the absence of banks any valuables would be in the house and therefore a prime target for theft.

Unfortunately he didn’t live long to enjoy his grand manor for disaster struck in November 1294 when, as part of a fleet of ships carrying fleeces to Flanders (Belgium), his ship was wrecked off the Suffolk coast and he drowned.  His descendants initially carried on the wool trade but this slowly died out and in 1620, after several occupations over the intervening centuries, the Castle was sold to the Craven family.

In 1640, Sir William Craven, a keen soldier and a Royalist, built the gatehouse probably to increase his standing as a local squire but during the Civil War in 1645 he was forced to surrender to the Parliamentarians (Roundheads) after a brief siege, without a shot being fired!  The moat was removed after the Civil War to prevent its use for protection but Stokesay Castle itself was lucky and survived the fate of many that were destroyed.

The adjacent Church of St John the Baptist, constructed before the castle in Norman times, was also damaged during the English Civil War (1642-51) and subsequently rebuilt.  

William Craven recovered all his estates after Charles II’s restoration in 1660 but he and his heirs only occasionally concerned themselves with the castle fabric and gradually over time the Castle fell into disrepair.  Eventually, in 1869, thanks to John Derby Allcroft, a successful London glove manufacturer, who bought the estate, an extensive and sympathetic programme of repairs was undertaken.  He built himself a new mansion nearby, at Stokesay Court, and ‘decided that the Castle should be left empty but kept safe and sound as an historic monument’.