Weston-under-Redcastle

Bury Walls, an Iron Age hillfort indicates the earliest known substantial occupation of the area.[2]

The disputed remains of a Roman camp have been contended for the area, postulated to be the lost settlement of Rutunium.[3]

Weston-under-Redcastle was called Westune in the 1086 Domesday Book; it was included in the Hundred of Hodnet within the county of Shropshire. The village had 21 households (large for the time) with total tax value of 3 geld units. In 1066 the value to the lord was £3; in 1086 it was £2. The village contained 3 villagers, 9 smallholders, 8 slaves and 1 rider. Weston had 8 plough lands, 2 lord's plough teams and one men's plough team. In 1066 the lord was Edric the Wild, and in 1086 it was Ranulf Peverel.[4] The fifteen Shropshire hundreds mentioned in the Domesday Survey were entirely rearranged in the 1100-1135 reign of King Henry I, and the Hundred of Hodnet was merged before 1203 into the Hundred of Bradford. When Bradford was divided, Weston was in North Bradford.

Arms of the Audley family

In 1227 Henry de Audley, Sheriff of Shropshire and Staffordshire, built a sandstone castle on a natural outcrop of rock that was flanked on all sides by wide valleys. The Audley family, later allied to the Stanley family held it in the medieval period: Dugdale informs us that "this castle was erected in the reign of Henry III; but there is an ancient manuscript in the Audley family, which proves that its original existence was of much earlier date. It is there said that 'Maud, or Matilde, wife of William the Conqueror, gave to John de Audley and to his heirs, the lands about Red Castle, in the county of Salop, for certain services done by him to the state."

Sir Rowland Hill of Soulton bought the manor of Hawkstone in 1556. He is associated with As You Like It and the Geneva Bible.

Sir Rowland Hill of Soulton (associated with Shakespeare's play As You Like It and the coordination of the Geneva Bible)[5] recruited the Hawkstone landscape for his landscape gardens. At that time, the senior house in the Hawkstone manor was still the Red Castle, and this was recorded as being a ruin when Leland[6] visited in around 1540. Hill therefore maintained his house at Soulton.

Hawkstone Park as understood today is 100 acres (40 ha) of follies and landscaped parkland grounds and rocky outcrops, based around the Red Castle, and this landscape garden was the output of a further development phase associated with Richard Hill of Hawkstone (1655-1727), who was a tutor to the family of Robert Boyle.

The Church of England church of St Luke dates back to 1791, built in the Gothic style but with a Georgian tower.

It is a Grade II listed building. It was originally a chapel of ease, attached to the parish of Hodnet. It now a parish church running with St Peter and St Paul in Wem. The red sandstone building of 1791, on a medieval site, was mostly funded by Sir Richard Hill, 2nd Baronet of Hawkstone. It was restored in the late 19th century: this included the chancel, the gabled timber porch, stained glass, pews and octagonal font.[7]

In 1968 a farmer named John James held a woman hostage in a derelict cottage just north of the village. The siege lasted for 17 days, with James shooting at photographers and an armoured car sent in by the Army. The siege ended when the hostage threw James's shotgun out of a window, which allowed soldiers and police to storm the cottage. It remains the longest siege of a wanted person in UK history.[8][9][10]

Parish stocks outside St Luke's Parish Church, Weston