Stokesay Castle Stokesay Castle is a fortified manor house in Stokesay , a mile south of the town of Craven Arms , in southern Shropshire . It was built in the late 13th century . Currently in the guardianship of English Heritage , Stokesay Castle is a Grade I listed building . History . From the Norman Conquest until 1241 , the area was held by the Lacy family , a powerful dynasty with lands in the Welsh Marches . On the death of the last male heir , Walter de Lacy , it was left to the husbands of his two granddaughters to divide the family estates . The manor of Stokesay went to John de Verdon . He went on crusade , leaving his property in the hands of a tenant . This tenant sold the manor in 1281 to Laurence of Ludlow . The main construction of Stokesay Castle was undertaken by Laurence of Ludlow , based in Shrewsbury , the richest local wool merchant of his generation . Extensive tree - ring dating of structural timbers shows that virtually all of the present structure was completed before 1291 , the date of Edward I ' s license to fortify the place , which stands in the Welsh Marches , the western borderland of the Norman domain at that time . The oldest parts of the building are the lower two storeys of the north tower , begun about 1240 . The great slate - roofed hall , thirty - four feet high , with four cross - gables , was added in the 1280s and is a very rare survival , having been virtually untouched since ; there is no fireplace , just the central open octagonal hearth . The roof ' s double collar - beams and curved collar braces rest on masonry corbels in the walling , an early example of innovation in roofing larger buildings . The original wooden staircase round two sides of the walls , giving access to the north tower , also remains to this day . The solar , an upper living room in the cross - wing , which gave a more private space in which to withdraw from the company in the hall , is accessible from an exterior timber stair sheltered by its own roof and contains Elizabethan oak panelling and a sumptuous fireplace . The South Tower has no direct access from any other structure : its use was purely defensive . The castle ' s most unusual feature is a timber - framed residence built onto the outside of the walls . The Elizabethan gatehouse , added in the 16th century , is also half - timbered and is decorated with carvings . The interior of the castle contains a selection of rare wall paintings from the Medieval period . This gradual development of the structure was achieved under ten successive generations of descendants of Laurence of Ludlow who lived in the building until the reign of Charles I . During King Charles I reign it came into the ownership of the Craven family and was used as a supply base for the King ' s forces in the area , based in strength at nearby Ludlow Castle in the early stages of the English Civil War . A skirmish took place at the castle during the English Civil War , in which Stokesay was handed over to the Parliamentarians after a short siege without a pitched battle ( in which it surely would have been severely damaged ) . Stokesay was lived in as a farmhouse and barn until the early 19th century . In 1869 it was purchased by John Derby Allcroft , a Worcester glove manufacturer and Member of Parliament , who recognising the value of the building ' s history and architectural features set about restoring and maintaining it while he also had Stokesay Court built nearby . Since 1992 the monument has been in the care of English Heritage , which provides a recorded audio tour of the entire premises for visitors . The castle is a Scheduled Monument , a " nationally important " historic building and archaeological site which has been given protection against unauthorised change . The site is also a venue for regular historical interpretations and re - enactments with events and activities . In 2010 , British Airways , in conjunction with English Heritage , named their last Boeing 757 ' Stokesay Castle ' .