Broncroft Castle
Has been described as a Certain Fortified Manor House
There are major building remains
| Name | Broncroft Castle |
| Alternative Names | Braincroft; Bramcroft; Bromcroft; Brancroft |
| Historic Country | Shropshire |
| Modern Authority | Shropshire |
| 1974 Authority | Shropshire |
| Civil Parish | Diddlebury |
Castle, now house. Mid C19, to C14 core. Sandstone rubble; plain tile roofs; various ornamental brick and stone stacks. Irregular plan. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, with various attics, towers and wings; irregular fenestration of cross-windows and lancets with leaded lights; traceried windows to east front. Main entrance to south-west: C19 plank door under pointed arch; tower to right, partly C14. INTERIOR: not inspected. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: rubble wall, approx 2m high, extends for some 30m. (Listed Building Report)
Broncroft Castle; a small castle of pink sandstone, originally Medieval with extensive 19th century renovations. There is evidence of the 14th century work in the tower to the right of the entrance (Listed Building Report; Pevsner 1958).
Rowley lists Broncroft as a site of a Medieval settlement, but its exact location is unknown. (Although said to be possibly obliterated by modern development, Broncroft Castle would appear to be the only building in the locality of Rowley's siting) (Rowley 1966) (PastScape)
The date and character of the fortified house at Broncrort is unclear. The present house, sited in Corvedale beside a stream which runs through the immaculately maintained gardens, is a two-storeyed Victorian residence centred round two square towers. That forward of the entrance is the only medieval element to have survived royalist and parliamentarian occupation in 1642-5, subsequent reparation, and rebuilding during the second quarter of the nineteenth century when Broncroft look on 'the appearance of a farmhouse'. The house was remodelled in 1889-98 when the present free-form Z shape was developed The medieval tower, three-storeyed with 4-foot thick walls, angle buttresses, and projecting stair turret, retains some simple square-headed windows. No early internal features survive in the single rooms, 20 feet by 15.5 feet, on each floor
It is possible that the development of the slightly grander Victorian tower was conditioned by the footings of a similar structure on the same site, but whether they spanned a residential block between them, as at Acton Burnell or the tower-house at Stafford Castle, or whether the tower was a single structure attached to a destroyed hall is conjectural. Leland's note that Brancroft was 'a very goodly place like a castel' suggests the the structure was substantial, even though the site is low lying and with no trace of a moat. (Emery 2000)
Not scheduled
This is a Grade 2 listed building protected by law
Historic England Scheduled Monument Number
Historic England Listed Building number(s)
Images Of England
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
| OS Map Grid Reference | SO544867 |
| Latitude | 52.476879119873 |
| Longitude | -2.67153000831604 |
| Eastings | 354470 |
| Northings | 286760 |
