Monument Type(s):

• FORTIFIED MANOR HOUSE (14th century to 17th century - 1300 AD to 1699 AD)
• MOAT (14th century to 15th century - 1300 AD to 1499 AD)
• MOATED SITE (14th century to 15th century - 1300 AD to 1499 AD)

Summary

A licence to crenellate was granted to the Charlton family of Apley in the early C14. The remains of the house (fortified in 1308) and those of the 17th century replacement house have been incorporated into the stable at Apley [PRN 00696]. The house was slighted during the Civil War and superceded by a house to the NE [PRN 12881] (since demolished) in the late C18. The site is protected by Grade II* Listing.

Related records

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• ESA3228 - 1980 assessment of Apley Castle estate, including contour survey by BUFAU
• ESA5590 - 1995 evaluation at Apley Castle by University of Bristol Archaeological Service (Ref: UBAS ACP 95A)
• ESA6300 - 2009 evaluation at Apley Castle by Nick Tavener Archaeological Contractor
• ESA6512 - 1995 sample excavation and watching brief at Apley Castle, Apley, by SCCAS
• ESA692 - 1960 survey by the NMR
• ESA693 - 1975 field observation by the Ordnance Survey
• ESA694 - 1981 field observation by Shropshire County Council
• ESA695 - 1989 building recording at Apley Castle by CHAU
• ESA696 - 1990 trial trenches in the ditch of Apley Castle by CHAU
• ESA697 - 1993 field observation by English Heritage
• ESA7744 - 2015 DBA of land at Apley Home Farm, Telford by Ironbridge Archaeology

Description

A licence to crenellate was granted to the Charlton family of Apley in the early C14. The house was surrounded by a moat and had an internal courtyard <1a><1b>
The remains of the house (fortifiied in 1308 [<1c>]) and those the 17th century replacement house have been incorporated into the stable at Apley [PRN 00696]. The house was slighted during the Civil War and superceded by a house to the NE [PRN 12881] (since demolished) in the late C18. No traces of a moat <1>
Former stable block at Apsley Castle now disused, as described above, being of ashlar construction with stone windows, largely of 18th century date but probably incorporating 17th century work, upon a base of rough-hewn, uncoursed blocks of masonry. There are no traces of a moat. <1d>

The 1327 licence to crenellate applied to Alan de Charleton's mansions at both Apley and Witheford. The Charltons were one of the most important Shropshire families in the early 14th century, including in their ranks a Keeper of the Privy Seal and later Chancellor of Ireland. Though they never rose to such prominence again, they continued to hold Apley, almost without interruption, until 1954 [this report contains more historical detail on the family]. Though Apley was referred to as a manor, it was technically a berewick (detached outlier) of Wellington. There is an earlier reference to the granting of free warren in demesne land at Apley in 1317-18, and it seems that there must have been a house at Apley for some time, maybe fifty years or more, before the licence to crenellate. The 1989 building survey identified structural elements of a hall house, probably with central hearth, two cross wings and a chapel still present within the extant stable building. There would doubtless have been a curtain wall and gatehouse, and probably a surrounding moat, lying beyond the area of the surviving structure. ->

-> By 1620 a new and much larger house had been completed on the site by Francis Charlton (possibly begun by his father, Andrew). One reference suggests that this house was started as early as 1567: the architectural evidence is consistent with a late 16th or early 17th century date. Francis died shortly after the Civil War started, but his widow (who had remarried) continued to live in the house. The house was garrisoned for the king, and documents show that it still had a curtain wall of sorts. However, it was quickly taken by the Parliamentary garrison of Wem, and partly burnt. Retaken by the Shrewsbury Royalist garrison, it was stripped of lead and partly slighted. The extent of damage to the main house does not in fact appear to have been that great. An inventory of 1659 shows that it was certainly still habitable and lists the rooms. A slightly later inventory of 1663 also refers to a brewhouse, malthouse, wash house, granary and stable. In 1672, the house had 17 hearths. ->

-> In the 18th century coal and iron ore mining developed on the Apley estate. The family built a new house (the Vineyard) in Wellington, but it is obvious from the documents that the old house was still being used. However, by the later part of the century, a new house was being planned at Apley on the back of the family's profits from industry. The old house seems to have gone out of use by 1791, for the contract for the new house [PRN 12881] allows the architect to reuse materials from it - except for the south and west sides which were to be used for stables and coach houses <2>

No remains of the moat are present around the manor house which incorporates substantial C14 masonry in its fabric. A license to crenellate was granted in 1327 and there is a medieval documentary reference to a moat around the hall < 4>

Licence to crenellate 10th July 1327 <6>

Rebuilt by Francis Charlton temp. Charles I at a cost of £6000 <7>

Materials form Wombridge Priory [PRN 01106] were used in building at Apley in 1693-8 <8>

Leach states "a portion of the original edifice is still to be seen in the coachman's cottages" and describes the building on p. 58. <9>

In 1990 CHAU were commissioned by TDC to carry out assessment excavations to determine the position of the moat on the north and west sides of the building complex. It was evidently still partially visible in the mid 19th century, for there is an 1858 reference to it. There is also a reference of 1885 which mentions a watercolour 'of the mansion as it was when formerly complete with moat, scarp and counter-scarp', as well the recollections of a local who said he remembered a water filled moat in c1800. Even as late as 1891 part of it (on the east side) was still water filled and in use as a fishpond, whilst the western arm (by now converted to a fruit and vegetable garden) regularly produced artefacts. ->

-> Three trenches were dug which located the position of the moat along the west and northern sides of the site. On the western side of the building complex the moat was broad and deep, with ample evidence that it was filled with water. On the northern side the moat was not as deep and there was no evidence that it had contained water. The western moat was close to the line of the buildings whilst on the north it was some 25 from the main complex. One reason for the variation in width and depth may be that the western arm of the moat was widened and deepened to form a pool at a late point in its history; the northern arm may at the same point have been remodelled to form a dry landscape feature <13>

In 1995 an evaluation was carried out by the University of Bristol Archaeology Service on the area to be affected by a proposed housing and farm building conversion development just to the north of the stable block [PRN 00696]. A documentary assessment (including a full chronology of the site) forms part of the report. With regard to the status of Apley, though a berewick (subordinate outlier) of the manor of Wellington in the Domesday Book, it was a manor by the 13th century: a freeholder is recorded in 1282. The township of Apley presented at the Great Court in 1345 and 1481. It is quite likely that the 14th century fortified house licensed in 1327 would have been constructed on a completely new site, where there was a suitable water supply to fill the moat [PRN 00706]. The documentary evidence suggests that by the end of the 15th century the house was only occupied occasionally and it may have functioned more as a hunting lodge than a manor house. After about 1541, however, it appears to have become the Charltons' principal seat. ->

-> With the construction of the new house in the late 18th century, the northern arm of the moat appears to have been filled in. Two trenches were positioned across its possible alignment. Trench Five was 17m long and ran from the castle northwards to the edge of the moat. All the medieval deposits appeared to have been removed. There was no trace of the documented curtain wall around the castle. Trench Six was 30m long and ran southwards from the walled garden, SA 17432, to the edge of the moat. The moat was found to have been cleaned out on several occasions and there was no trace of intact silt accumulation <14>

Evaluated for MPP in 1990-1, Medium score as one of 133 Moated sites <16>

Originally a medieval manor house. The great hall, private chapel, screen passage and part of the service wings of the medieval house are incorporated within the derelict stable block. Towards the end of the 16th century the medieval house was completely remodelled to provide more fashionable and comfortable accommodation for the family. This work was not completed until 1620, by which time two long wings had been added to the south of the medieval core, and new doors, windows, fireplaces and a floor had been inserted into the great hall. The new house was a typical half-H plan mansion of the time, with architectural detailing to match <17>

A programme of sample excavation was carried out in 1996 at Apley Castle in association with the conversion of the former medieval and post-medieval house and more recent stable blocks into a number of residential units. A number of trial trenches and test-pits were excavated and recorded across the site and a series of groundworks were monitored. ->

-> Traces of early floors, possibly predating the early 14th century stone hall, were encountered in the north range, supporting the view that the early 14th-century stone hall replaced an earlier structure on the same site. The pond at the western edge of the site may have originally been a natural feature. It may have been used as a fishpond during the earlier medieval period - the degree of silting would seem to suggest that the pond had a considerable lifespan before it was encroached upon by the solar of the early 14th-century hall buildings, and became the western arm of the moat. The plan of the early 14th-century stone building was shown to be rectangular with the chapel projecting slightly to the north of the western end of the north wall. ->

-> In the later medieval period, the west or solar wing was extended to the south and the east or service wing enlarged to the north and east. Nevertheless, the small area exposed by the excavations and the sparseness of the artefactual evidence means that the dating and interpretation of the medieval sequence remains tentative at best. Demolition deposits were encountered which might have been occasioned by the early 17th century rebuilding of the house or its slighting in the Civil War and its subsequent reconstruction. Within the southern half of the east wing and the south range, no archaeological features or deposits were encountered that pre-dated the late 18th century conversion of the castle into stables. Outside the north wall of the castle, the ground had been heavily disturbed at quite a recent date - probably during the demolition of the northern range of cottages in the 1960-70s. The only significant archaeological deposit encountered was a late medieval/early post-medieval pebble surface immediately to the north of the former service wing. <18>

Four ranges enclose a square courtyard. Outer walls of squared ashlar blocks. In th N range a two centre headed chamfered doorway, which gave entry to the screens passage. Walling of the service wing to the l. To the r. the W jamb of the hall window survives, and beyond it a two-storey projection originally containing a small upper chapel. Gabled parlour wing beyond that. A continuous external plinth extends the length of the E and W ranges, and returns across the outer bays of the S range. This indicates the extent of the late Elizabethan mansion, in three ranges round a court open towards the S. Also of this date various mullioned windows; one inserted in the N wall of the C14 parlour wing, at the N end of the E wall a transomed three-lighter and small two-lighter (both replicated in the C19 at the S end). The W range, greatly extending the parlour wing, has three transomed three-lighters and a transomed window of five lights. The similarly fenestrated upper storey of the late Elizabethan house, and its crowning batllements, recorded in C19 engravings, have disappeared. The façade is of c.1791, with blind arcading, the centre three arches originally open to give access to the stable court. The present E entry, and the cart-arches in the inner wall of the N range, are of the 1850s. <19>

Moat around the site has been completely infilled. <20>

Derelict, but under brick and plaster are the remains of the moated C14 Charlton house. It was stone-built with a ground-floor hall, screens passage and two service doors. There is a solar at the upper end and a chapel at first-floor level. This has a double-lancet window, an ogee-headed piscina, and painted walls including a female saint figure on one side of the altar. <21>

Site of moat? Filled in. <22>

Apley Castle. Georgian mansion with Victorian additions. <23>

Description of stables at Apley Castle enlarged and amended. <24>

SJ 655132 Remains of moat and buildings noted in list of moated sites in Shropshire. Summary report on a survey commissioned by English Heritage in 1989, which showed that the manor house had survived largely intact. It consisted of a hall, with a two-storey service block at the low end and a solar block at the high, next to which was a first floor chapel, whose fixtures were also almost intact. <25>

Listed as a vanished castle. <26>

The fortified manor house known as Apley Castle, which occupies a moated site, was the residence of the Charlton family. It was built about 1327 following a licence to crenellate. The 14th century house was extended and remodelled in the late 16th/ early 17th century. It was altered in the 18th century when it was used as stables associated with the nearby country house. Substantial parts of the 14th century house remain and form the core of the stable block. The building is listed Grade II*. It has now been divided into a series of domestic apartments. ->

-> The moat surrounding the former manor house has been completely infilled. Trenches dug as part of an archaeological evaluation in 1990 found that the western arm of the moat was broad, deep and had retained water, whilst the northern arm was less deep and probably never contained water. A further archaeological evaluation in 1995 found that the northern moat arm had been cleaned out on several occasions and that there were no medieval deposits surviving. The southern and eastern sides of the moated island are discernible as low scarps, indicating that the island had been slightly raised above the level of the surrounding ground <27>

Sources

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