Here is an alternative angle to my previous shot of the main castle building at Stokesay, this time showing the Tudor gatehouse on the left.
Stokesay Castle is a few miles north of Ludlow in Shropshire. The fortified manor house was built in the late 13th century by Laurence of Ludlow, then the leading wool merchant in England, who intended it to form a secure residence and generate income as a commercial estate.
Architecturally, Stokesay Castle is "one of the best-preserved medieval fortified manor houses in England", according to historian Henry Summerson. The castle comprises a walled, moated enclosure, with an entrance way through a 17th-century timber and plaster gatehouse. Inside, the courtyard faces a stone hall and solar block, protected by two stone towers. The hall features a 13th-century wooden-beamed ceiling, and 17th-century carved figures ornament the gatehouse and the solar. The castle was never intended to be a serious military fortification, but its style was intended to echo the much larger castles being built by Edward I in North Wales. The castle has changed very little since the 13th century, and is a rare surviving example of a near complete set of medieval buildings.
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