Lower Down Castle, Lydbury North

In the civil parish of Lydbury North.
In the historic county of Shropshire (Modern Authority of Shropshire, 1974 county of Shropshire).

Small mutilated motte surviving as an earthwork and fragments of a shell keep surviving as buried foundations. The motte has a base diameter of 34m and is 4.7m high on the west side, with a summit diameter of about 18m. Quarrying for stone has removed most of the east side above 1.8m. The surrounding ditch is 6.5m in width and from 2.1m in depth on the west side and 0.6m on the east side. There is a counterscarp bank 0.3m high except on the south east. There were no traces of a bailey.
I did a site visit on 26-3-06. To my untrained but experienced eyes the partly buried foundations were of a short run of a 1.7m wide straight wall. To me the remains look more those of a collapsed and robbed square tower, possibly with a fore-building, rather than a shell keep on a motte. Modern brick rubble suggest a later building on the site which adds additional confusion to interpreting the site.

This site has been described as a;
Timber Castle
Masonry Castle.
The confidence that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Certain.
Earthworks remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SO33648460

Modern Map from Good for landscape form and features	Modern Map from Good for general location
Air Photo from	1st edition OS Map from

Sources of information, references and further reading

PastScape number; 107278

• Web site links
  • http://www.castlewales.com/lowrdown.html [trees on mound have since been have been cleared]
• Books
  • Salter, Mike, 2001 (2edn), The Castles and Moated Mansions of Shropshire (Malvern) p87 [slight]
    Jackson, M.J.,1988, Castles of Shropshire (Shrewsbury: Shropshire Libraries) p23-4
    King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol2 p426-7
    Fry, P.S., 1980, Castles of the British Isles (David and Charles) p256
    Wall [after Downham], 1908, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Shropshire Vol1 p386
• Journal Articles
  • Hogg, A.H.A. and King, D.J.C., 1967, 'Masonry castles in Wales and the Marches: a list' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol116 p71-132
    Hogg, A.H.A. and King, D.J.C., 1963, 'Early castles in Wales and the Marches: a preliminary list' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol112 p77-124