Castles Old Mansions of Shropshire

Annotation

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The Keep Tower and the Hall were the distinguishing features in the Norman Castle, in the latter the family dined, while the vassals congregated round its central hearth during the day and on its floor they slept at night. The earliest specimen of a Baronial Hall, in any state of preservation, in Shropshire, is that of stoke-say Castle, which was in existence before 1290. In the 14th century the Dining-room had begun to supersede the Hall; the necessity for a large number of dependents had ceased in consequence of the establishment of independent traders, and workmen; Serfs were no longer fed at their Master's tables; and the more tranquil state of the Country when the wars of the Roses had terminated, rendered it no longer necessary to have a band of armed retainers on the spot and guests were not accompanied by so many followers. There appears to have been an interval between the Edwardian, and the Elizabethan periods, during which few Domestic Buildings were erected in the border countries fortresses were no longer necessary, and the inhabitants had not recovered from the ruinous effects of the struggles between the rival houses of York and Lancaster, and had not yet acquired sufficient wealth by habits of peace ful industry to expend much on their houses. Shropshire however possesses two buildings of the 15th century, which Mr. Parker considers to be among the best examples in England, viz - the Prior's House belonging to Wenlock Abbey, and an old House in Butchers' Row, in Shrewsbury, - the one of a Country, the other of a Town House. He also, in his work on Domestic Architecture, mentions Langley and Plaish Halls as good specimens of the time of Henry VIII whilst of Elizabethan and Jacobean Houses, almost every parish furnishes examples, from the rich details of Moreton Corbet, and the beautiful outline of Condover among the stone buildings, and of Pitchford and Park Hall among those of timber, (the latter a style of building almost unknown except in the