HOPTON CASTLE, SHROPSHIRE.
ABOUT five miles south-east of Clun, upon a tributary of the Teme, is placed the parish and castle of Hopton, the Opetune of Domesday, when it was, like Clun, held by Picot as the successor of Edric. It was a fief of Clun. In 1165 it was held by Walter de Opton as two knights’ fees under Geoffrey de Vere, one of the three husbands of Isabel de Say; and Peter de Opton held it in 1201. William de Hopton may have followed, but Mr. Eyton is not clear whether he may not have been of Monk-Hopton in the same county.
However this may be, Walter de Hopton held the fief in 1223, as did another Walter, 1255–72, and was bound to provide for the defence of Clun Castle one soldier all the year round, and a second for forty days in time of war. In 1304–5, upon the death of Walter de Hopton, he was seized of the Vill of Hopton with its hamlets, and a considerable property about it, chiefly held under Clun, as continued to be the original two fees, by Sir John de Hopton, in the 21 Richard II. The family seems to have remained at Hopton till the reign of Elizabeth, but the castle was still standing and of sufficient strength to be held for King Charles in the seventeenth century. It was taken after a gallant resistance, and dismantled.
HOPTON CASTLE.—Ground Plan.
Scale—¹⁄₂₀ inch = 1 foot.
Hopton Castle or Tower stands about half a mile south of the parish church. It occupies a knoll or patch of gravel, which rises out of a marshy bottom, caused by the waters of the brooks which here fall into the main stream. There is a central mound, low but well defined, which is surrounded by a circular ditch, and beyond this ditch are the traces of two or three platforms, but slightly elevated, and which have been fortified by ditches fed with water by a streamlet from the west. No doubt the place was occupied by some tenant of Edric, for its earthworks are certainly pre-Norman, and perhaps of the tenth century. It is probable that its Norman tenant and his descendants, who derive their names from the place, were for some centuries content with such defences as they found ready to their hands, for there is no trace of masonry, either of the eleventh or twelfth centuries.
The castle consists of a single tower, quadrangular, 48 feet by 50 feet, with walls 10 feet thick. It stands upon the mound, which is not above 6 feet high, and through which the foundations are no doubt carried. It has a basement at the ground level, a first or main floor, and an attic in the roof. The exterior is plain, having a double-scroll stringcourse from 4 feet to 6 feet from the ground. Each angle is capped by a pair of broad pilasters of slight projection, which ascend to the summit, and probably carried four square turrets. The doorway is on the north side, not far from its west end, and nearly at the ground-floor level, ascended from the exterior by three or four steps. The south front has a square projection at its west end, in which is a garderobe. The doorway, the only entrance, is 6 feet wide, and has an equilateral arched head. Its mouldings are two convex quarter circles divided by a step. Their character is plain but excellent Decorated. Over the doorway was a triangular hood, now broken away. There is no portcullis, only a strong door.
Entering, a vaulted passage leading to the basement has a small door on the right, which leads into a well-stair, 6 feet in diameter, occupying the north-west angle of the building, and ascending to the roof. At the first floor is a lobby, with a small window above the outer door. This is the only staircase. The basement chamber is 29 feet by 21 feet. In the north wall is a deep recess, 7 feet wide, containing a small square-headed loop. Opposite, in the south wall, is a similar recess and window, but in the jambs are two doors, which by short passages lead into two chambers in the two southern angles. That in the south-east angle is 7 feet by 6 feet, with two loops. The other is a garderobe, with one loop. Both are covered in with overhanging slabs. In the west side is another window, in a recess, similar to those above described, and a fireplace with a vertical tunnel. In the east wall are two recesses, one blank and one pierced with a loop. From the jamb of this latter a door opens into a small chamber in the north-east angle.
The first floor is lofty. The joists and boards are gone, and the walls and window recesses are so thick with brambles and so inaccessible that the details are not to be seen. This floor seems to resemble the basement, save that it is higher, and the windows are larger.
The remains of two gables in the north and south fronts show that there was a ridge roof, with a small window at each end. Altogether this is a very peculiar building, much more like a Scottish than an English castle. It is all of one date, probably the work of Walter de Hopton, who died in 1304–5, and seems to have been a man of considerable wealth and power.