The remains of Bridgnorth Castle stand within a Victorian public garden atop high cliffs in Bridnorth’s High Town, overlooking the River Severn.

Castle History

The castle was begun in 1101 by Robert de Belleme, Earl of Shrewsbury, who abandoned his father’s caste at Quatford in favour of this clifftop site. The castle may stand on the site of an earlier fortification erected by Ã?thelflæd of Mercia in AD 912. Alternatively, Ã?thelflæd stronghold may have stood on Panpudding Hill, to the south-west.

De Bellame’s choice of the more easily defended site may have been prompted by his tensions with Henry I. De Belleme rebelled against the king the following year, and Henry marched on Bridgnorth at the head of an army.

He besieged the newly-built castle, whose defenders lasted three weeks before surrendering, and De Belleme was exiled to Normandy.

Henry I strengthened the castle defences, and in 1137 he granted the castle to Hugh De Mortimer. In 1155 Mortimer refused to surrender the castle to Henry II, prompting a second siege. This had the same outcome as the first; the defenders held out briefly but were forced to surrender. After this point, Bridgnorth Castle remained in royal hands.

it was Henry II who added the square stone tower that is the castle’s major remaining feature.

The castle was extended in the 12th century and again in the 13th century, when the outer bailey was made an official part of the surrounding town. Despite these efforts to strengthen the castle, it ceased to have military significance and was reported in a state of decay by 1281.

The castle was occupied briefly in 1321 by barons at odds with Edward II, but repairs were sporadic and in the 16th century the antiquarian John Leyland wrote that the castle wards ‘now goe [sic] totally to ruin.’

Ruins of the Great Tower

Civil War

During the Civil War, Bridgnorth was firmly in the Royalist camp and the castle was garrisoned for the king. Oliver Cromwell’s Parliamentarian army besieged the castle in 1646. The defenders held out for three weeks but were eventually forced to surrender.

Cromwell ordered the castle to be slighted to make it unusable for military purposes. In the wake of the Civil War destruction, stone was robbed to repair other buildings in the town.

A surviving postern gate was blown up in 1821 because it obstructed traffic.

The Leaning Tower

The only major part of the castle still standing is a section of the Great Tower. The tower was so badly damaged in the Civil War that it leans at a remarkable 15 degrees, approximately four times the inclination of the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa.