Acton Burnell Castle

Acton Burnell Castle, Acton Burnell

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed building
List Entry Number:
1366722
Date first listed:
13-Jun-1958
Statutory Address:
Acton Burnell Castle, Acton Burnell
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Location

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Date:
2002-07-22
Reference:
IOE01/08171/34
Rights:
© Mr M. I. Joachim. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed building
List Entry Number:
1366722
Date first listed:
13-Jun-1958
Date of most recent amendment:
14-May-1986
Statutory Address 1:
Acton Burnell Castle, Acton Burnell

Location

Statutory Address:
Acton Burnell Castle, Acton Burnell

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:
Shropshire (Unitary Authority)
Parish:
Acton Burnell
National Grid Reference:
SJ 53382 01898

Details

SJ 50 SW
6/3

ACTON BURNELL C.P.
Acton Burnell Castle

(formerly listed as Ruins of Acton Burnell Castle)

13.6.58

GV
I
Fortified manor house, remains of.1284-5 for Robert Burnell (died 1292) with some late C18 alterations. Roughly squared and coursed red and grey sandstone with ashlar dressings; C18 stone slate hipped roofs over west block and south-west tower.

Four-bay central block formerly with first-floor three-bay hall and one-bay chamber over ground-floor buttery and service chambers; small projecting garderobe block to west; projecting square corner towers: formerly containing garde-robe to north-west, stairs to upper chambers to south-west; possible chapel and stairs to hall to north-east, and stairs to undercroft to south-east.

Two and three storeys with four-storey towers. Battlemented parapets; towers with moulded plinth and chamfered offsets. Large two-light windows with cusped geometrical tracery, ground floor lancets to north; rectangular openings to towers. Disturbed masonry to central block is evidence of former buttresses; there was formerly a two-span roof, springing from corbels and a now-demolished central hall arcade.

Robert Burnell was Chancellor of England and Bishop of Bath and Wells; he also built a large palace at Wells with which the design of Acton Burnell has some affinities. The ruins were used as a barn in the C18 when the large depressed archways were created in the north and south walls. To the east of the house stand the gable ends of a large C13 stone barn (County A.M. No.1a) (not included on this list) and the Church of St Mary (q.v.) lies immediately to the north-west.

Listing NGR: SJ5338201898

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:
259654
Legacy System:
LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Ralegh Radford, CA, Acton Burnell Castle, (1977)
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Shropshire, (1958), 47-9
Article in Serial in Archaeological Journal, Vol. 138, (1981), 31-32
Detsicas, A P, Maidstone: Kent Archaeological Society in Collectanea Historica, (1981), 85-92

Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 35 Shropshire,

Legal

Ordnance survey map of Acton Burnell Castle

Map

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 05-Jun-2026 at 07:59:37.

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© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. Use of this mapping is subject to Terms and Conditions.

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

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