The Keep, the walls of which are of great strength and thickness, was erected by Edward I. and is a square building, connected with two round towers of equal diameter, embattled and pierced, and originally consisted of one great apartment on each of the upper floors. The interior, as well as the exterior, has been greatly altered. A handsome stone staircase, of modern construction, leads from the vestibule (in which is a statue of the founder, Roger de Montgomery), to the principal apartments. The drawing room, used as a guard-chamber in the time of Charles 1st, is spacious and handsome. A stone stair-case within the wall, lighted by narrow chinks, leads to an apartment in the western tower, in which was a recess, with a strong groined ceiling, and small acutely pointed windows.
On the east side of the court is a postern, built probably during the civil wars; and adjacent to it are the massive foundations of an ancient tower.
In the area of the court, now entirely cleared of buildings, the Knights of the Shire have, from time immemorial, been girt with their swords by the Sheriff.
Of that invariable appendage of castles, the Chapel of St. Michael, all traces have long been swept away. Its site is even now a matter of conjecture. Originally it was endowed with considerable landed estates, was a “Royal Free Chapel,” and was subsequently granted, with its appendant, the Church of St. Juliana, in this town, by Henry IV. to his College erected at Battlefield, in commemoration of his victory there.
Roger de Montgomery, the first Norman Earl of Shrewsbury, is regarded as the founder of the Castle, though it is more probable that he only enlarged a smaller fortress which is known to have existed here anterior to his times. To afford an eligible site for his new buildings, he is stated to have destroyed fifty-one houses; a fifth part of the whole town at that period. On the forfeiture of Earl Robert de Belesme, in the time of Henry I., the castle became a royal fortress, and was entrusted to the custody of the Sheriff, and the vast possessions annexed to it were parcelled out among various knights, to be held by the service of castle ward. During the turbulent reign of Henry III. the castle fell into a state of great dilapidation, but his son, Edward I., immediately on his accession, almost entirely rebuilt the structure; which, upon the submission of the Welsh, being no longer needed as a military fortress, was again abandoned to ruin and decay.
In the reign of Elizabeth a grant was made of its site and buildings to Richard Onslow, Esq. who subsequently transferred his interest to the Corporation. During the civil wars it was repaired and garrisoned for the royal party; but being besieged by the parliamentary forces, it surrendered in 1645, and escaped demolition by being entrusted to Colonel Mitton, a native of the county. On the Restoration it reverted to the Corporation, who, in 1663, surrendering their title to Charles II., that monarch presented it to Francis Viscount Newport, afterwards Earl of Bradford, from whom it has passed to the present proprietor, the Duke of Cleveland.
Nearly opposite the Castle is