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of Stokesay and the Church adjoining ; on the opposite side of the valley the bold 

 escarpment of Weo Edge, and in the distance to the N.W. the long range of 

 the Longmynd and the eruptive mass of Corndon, an example of what some 

 geologists now call a Laccolite, or the intrusion of a quantity of molten 

 basalt into the cavities of sedimentary strata produced in the course of their 

 upheaval. 



As regards the Botany of the district : In the neighbouring woods are to 

 be found Hypericum montanum. Geranium lucidum, Epipactis latifoUa, Paris 

 quadrifolia, Vicia sylvatiea : the rare Orchis Cephalanthera ensifoUa has been 

 found in the neigbourhood : — and on the opposite bluff of Stoke Wood is the 

 famous habitat of Astrantia major. Permission to range these woods had been 

 kindly given to the botanists by Mr. J. D. Allcroft, of Stokesay Court, Onibury. 



The descent from the heights of Norton Camp having been successfully 

 accomplished, the hospitable grounds of Stokesay Vicarage were visited en route 

 to Stokesay Castle. This Castle is interesting from the fact of its being an 

 almost unique instance of a domestic building of the thirteenth century, which 

 was afterwards fortified. There is an excellent guide book by the Rev. J. D. 

 La Touche, publisher! by Adnitt and Naunton, of Shrewsbury, from which we 

 learn that in Domesday this Castle is called Stokes, and that it was one of the 

 many manors held " in capite " by the Lacys. About 1115 the De Says, whose 

 ancester Picot de Sai, from Sez in Normandy, fought at Hastings under William 

 the Conqueror, began to hold it under the De Lacys. In 1240 it came to John de 

 Verdon, husband of a daughter of the last Lacy, and in 1281 it was in the 

 hands of Lawrence de Ludlow, probably a merchant of that town, who built 

 the southern tower in 1290. The Ludlows held this property for ten generations, 

 when it came through an heiress to the Vernons. They sold it to the ^[ainwarings, 

 who in 1616 parted with it to William Craven, afterwards Lord Craven. He let 

 it on a long lease to the Baldwyns, during whose tenure it was held for the King, 

 but surrendered to the Parliamentary army marching to besiege Ludlow. Sir 

 William Croft was slain in an engagement in the neighbourhood ; he is described 

 by John Vicars in his quaint work, The Burniiuj Busk iiot consumed, as "the best 

 head-piece and activest man in the County." 



The Castle escaped destruction, and has been placed in a fitting state of 

 repair since it came into the possession of Mr. J. D. Allcroft. of Stokesay Court, 

 late M.P. for Worcester. 



The entrance to the Castle is occupied by a fine example of a timbered 

 Tudor building in an excellent state of preservation. A massive oak door, admits 

 to the courtyard which was formerly surrounded by a loopholed wall, and a moat 

 with an average breadth of twenty-two feet surrounds the whole fortified mansion. 

 The Castle consists of three distinct parts. A tower at the north end, the lower 

 portion of which, loopholed with very narrow loopholes, is probably the earliest 

 portion of the building, but it was subsequently surmounted with a comparatively 

 modern superstructure ; the hall with its solar or drawing-room occupies the 

 intermediate portion of the building ; and on the south is the great tower, which, 

 as appears from a Patent Roll of the nineteenth year of Edward the first, was 



