ECCLESHALL CASTLE

In 669 the Estate and Manor of Eccleshall was given to the Bishops of Lichfield by Wulfere, King of Mercia. The Bishops needed many houses to be able to traverse the large expanse of their See. Which in the case of the diocese of Lichfield, stretched from just north of Rugby up to Preston in Lancashire. Eccleshall was at its heart, and became the Bishop’s Summer Palace.

An early castle may have stood on the site in 1066. In 1153, Bishop Durdent obtained a Royal Charter for Eccleshall, to hold a weekly market. During the period 1190 to 1200, not only was the main part of Holy Trinity Church built, but King John sold to Bishop Mushchamp a Licence to Crenellate, that is to fortify, the manor house on the castle site.

In 1257 Bishop Meuland became Bishop, and he obtained a charter to hold an annual fair at Ascentiontide. By the end of that century Eccleshall became a borough, and the burgages, that still form the layout of the town, were designed.

In 1296 Walter de Langton became bishop. He was Treasurer of England to Edward I. He was powerful enough to have built a large castle at Eccleshall, and Edward Ist was the first royal visitor.

 During the War of the Roses, John Hales became bishop in 1459. He had been private chaplain to Queen Margaret of Anjou, who he entertained at Eccleshall with her husband, Henry VI. The castle became her battle headquarters, for the battle of Blore Heath, on the Market Drayton road. The Queen watched the battle from the tower of Mucklestone church, returning to Eccleshall on the death of her commander, Lord Audley, seeking sanctuary in Eccleshall Church.

There are six bishops buried in Eccleshall Church. The only Roman Catholic is Richard Sampson. He was chaplain to Cardinal Wolsley, but incurred the displeasure of Henry VIII and spent some time in the Tower. He was a diplomat at the Court of Spain, and he helped to secure Henry a divorce from Catherine of Aragon. He was rewarded by being made Bishop of Lichfield and President of the Marches. He kept well away from London, spending his time between Eccleshall and Ludlow.

In 1559, Thomas Bentham became the first Protestant Bishop of Lichfield, and the first to bring a wife and family to Eccleshall. Bishop William Overton came to the See in 1580. He had been chaplain to Elizabeth I, but is famous in Eccleshall for bringing the French glassmakers to the Bishop’s Wood. They brought wealth to the bishop and affluence to Eccleshall.

Bishop Richard Wright- 1632- was a personal friend of Charles I, who brought his sons to visit Eccleshall Castle on a number of occasions. After an impassioned speech at the Bar in the House of Commons, Bishop Wright came back to Eccleshall, and made the castle a Royalist stronghold. In August 1643 after the Battle of Hopton Heath, the Royalist cavaliers rescued the castle from a siege by the Parliamentarians. They found the bishop aged 83, dead ofnatural causes, his wife suffering from a bullet in the shoulder. They tried to bury the bishop, but were halted by a troop of soldiers from Stafford. The fighting took place all along the High Street, and ended when the Parliamentarians routed the Cavaliers. The men from the castle had helped in the fight, and left only 10 men to guard the castle. On finding out this information, the Parliamentarians got the castle to surrendered, and for the rest of the war, Eccleshall Castle became a prison. The damage done by the cannon during the siege was continued, and the rest of the castle was levelled. It was then sold into private hands. All that remains on the site today is a three storied, nine sided, corner tower. Part of a second corner tower, also probably nine sided, was uncovered during an excavation in the 1970’s. It is likely that many of the walls of the domestic range, still remain below ground level, in front of the present Mansion house. The 14thC bridge which spans the moat, at the Southern side of the castle, also still remains.

On the restoration of King Charles II, the castle again belonged to the bishopric. It was William Lloyd – 1692- who had the present Queen Anne Mansion built. His Prebendary Launcelot Addison supervised the design and building, and it is said that William Lloyd hated the new house, saying that it was nothing more than a cow byre. He spend money on restoring Byanna, a manor that still stands on the junction of the Newcastle and Swynnerton road, near the castle.

From this time on the bishops spent more and more of their time at Eccleshall. With the last bishop to reside there being John Lonsdale who died in the parlour during October 1867.

His successor Bishop Selwyn thought the castle to big and most unbecoming for a man of the cloth. The Castle was then sold into private hands, with the Carter family buying it in 1905.

Mary Dodkins 2004.