Stokesay Castle is a fortified medieval manor house, founded by Lawrence of Ludlow, a wealthy local wool-merchant. Of a single build, virtually the whole of the still-surviving house was completed from 1281 to 1291, when King Edward I granted a licence to crenellate. Hardly altered since, the Baldwyn family added, the panelled chamber in the solar block and the timber-framed gatehouse in the mid 17th century. In the Civil War, the castle owned by the Craven family was a small Royalist stronghold but in 1645 after a skirmish and a short siege, it surrendered to a Parliamentarian force. Encased by a moat, the walled courtyard is flanked by the north tower, the isolated multangular south tower and the gatehouse. In between the towers stands the solar block and the open-hearthed great hall, with its fine timber roof and rare wooden staircase. 6 miles east at Culmington is Camp Ring.