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© Mr M. I. Joachim
IoE Number:
259654
Location:
RUINS OF ACTON BURNELL CASTLE,
ACTON BURNELL, SHREWSBURY AND ATCHAM, SHROPSHIRE
Photographer:
Mr M. I. Joachim
Date Photographed:
22 July 2002
Date listed:
13 June 1958
Date of last amendment:
14 May 1986
Grade
I
NOTE - The Images of England website consists of images of listed buildings based on the statutory list as it was in 2001 and does not incoporate subsequent amendments to the list. For an updated version of the statutory list you should visit our LBOnline database http://lbonline.english-heritage.org.uk/Login.aspx
ACTON BURNELL C.P. ACTON BURNELL
SJ 50 SW
6/3 Acton Burnell Castle
(formerly listed as Ruins
13.6.58
of Acton Burnell Castle)
GV I
Fortified manor house, remains of. 1284-5 for Robert Burnell (died
1292) with some late C18 alterations. Roughly squared and coursed
red and grey sandstone with ashlar dressings; C18 stone slate hipped
roofs over west block and south-west tower. 4-bay central block
formerly with first-floor 3-bay hall and one-bay chamber over ground-
floor buttery and service chambers; small projecting garderobe block
to west; projecting square corner towers: formerly containing garde-
robe to north-west, stairs to upper chambers to south-west; possible chapel and
stairs to hall to north-east, and stairs to undercroft to south-east.
2 and 3 storeys with 4-storey towers. Battlemented parapets; towers
with moulded plinth and chamfered offsets. Large 2-light windows with
cusped geometrical tracery, ground floor lancets to north; rectangular
openings to towers. Disturbed masonry to central block is evidence of
former buttresses; there was formerly a 2-span roof, springing from
corbels and a now-demolished central hall arcade. Robert Burnell was
Chancellor of England and Bishop of Bath and Wells; he also built a
large palace at Wells with which the design of Acton Burnell has some
affinities. The ruins were used as a barn in the C18 when the large
depressed archways were created in the north and south walls. To
the east of the house stand the gable ends of a large C13 stone barn
(County A.M. No.la) (not included on this list) and the Church of
St Mary (q.v.) lies immediately to the north-west. County A.M. No.1 .
C.A. Ralegh Radford, Acton Burnell Castle, H.M.S.O., 1977; B.o.E.,
Pp.47-9; Ed A.P. Detsicas, Collectanea Historica, Maidstone: Kent
Archaelogical Society (1981), Pp.85-92; Archaelogical Journal, Vol.
138 (1981), Pp.31-2.