Our model of the castle steals
the show
Deep in the rolling hills of Shropshire sits the peaceful village of Hopton Castle, but this tranquil spot hides a violent history.
In 1644 it was the site of a vicious Civil War siege where 30 Parliamentarian defenders held out for weeks against a Royalist army. It ended in one of the most infamous massacres of the war - after surrender the defenders were betrayed by the victorious Royalists and put to the sword. Only their commander survived.
We had been called in by the Hopton Castle Preservation Trust and our own castle expert, Richard Morris who believed the site needed a three day Time Team dig to find out more about its history and the layout of the castle at the time of the Hopton massacre.
Most of the sites we tackle are made up of archaeology laid down over centuries, but at Hopton Castle we were interested in events which lasted only a few weeks. So our plan for the three days was to work out what this castle looked like in 1644, how it was taken by the Royalists and whether we could find the burial place of the missing defenders.
Luckily for us the entire siege was recorded in a blow-by-blow account by the surviving commander of the defences, Colonel More.
The castle site was covered in banks, ditches and ponds and understanding these earthworks was going to be vital to work out the original layout. Time Team's landscape investigator Stewart Ainsworth was in his element as he started to piece together the outline of the castle from the lumps and bumps. But instead of simply drawing a plan he began work on a large papier mache model to bring the siege story back to life.
The star find: a gold Quarter Laurel
Meanwhile our first trenches went in to try and identify the medieval curtain wall and moat thought to surround the site. But Phil quickly discovered that what he was uncovering wasn't quite that simple. He had found a wall, but it wasn't a massive curtain wall. Instead it was simply part of a building that would have acted as a barrier against attackers not the defensive circuit we had expected.
Over in the centre of the inner bailey geophysics revealed the footprint of another, potentially crucial building. Our historical documents said the defenders could have been buried in a cellar and the geophysics suggested this structure could be a candidate. So a trench quickly went in to see if this was the soldier's final resting place.
As always we were looking for finds that could date the buildings we were uncovering. This information often comes from coins and in the basement trench we struck gold - literally. A beautiful gold Quarter Laurel from the 1620s emerged. With the date tying in perfectly with the Civil War it could have been dropped by an officer in the heat of combat.
Evidence of the three Royalist attacks on the castle began to emerge across the site. Musket balls, burning, cannon balls, even a human tooth. Using the geophysics and Stewarts earthworks survey we identified the locations of the first and second waves of attack before the final curtain wall breach. After this the defenders fled to the main tower before finally surrendering.
As more and more of the layout was uncovered we began to realise that Hopton 'Castle' at the time of the Civil War was less of a stronghold and more of a country manor. The layout and buildings just weren't defensive enough - there were windows in the keep, a Tudor brick mansion house and filled in medieval ditches. By the time the Civil War erupted, the medieval castle had evolved from a defensive site into a country house. And clearly this would have made keeping the Royalist army out an even more difficult task.
Time Team takes on Blue Peter
at model making
Unfortunately our search for the resting place of the defenders didn't meet with success - the varying descriptions of the burial place meant we just couldn't pin down the final location. But in spite of these differing accounts the story of the massacre wasn't forgotten. In fact it entered the folklore of the Civil War and for the rest of the conflict Royalist soldiers looking to surrender feared the option of 'Hopton Quarter' - death.
Colonel Woodhouse, commander of the attacking forces carried on with his military career until 1646 when he was besieged at Ludlow Castle. He finally agreed to surrender, but only on the condition that it was to anybody except Colonel Moore who, we can only guess, would have been very keen to offer his enemy his own 'Hopton Quarter'.
This was an emotionally charged three days with the whole site filled with evidence of the brutal three week siege. It would have been a terrifying place for the 30 Parliamentary defenders alone in Royalist territory - a startling contrast to the rural idyll we had dug in.
