Place Feature

This part-natural, part man-made landscape began pulling in visitors more than 200 years ago, but it declined with the fortunes of the family who owned it into a mess of extravagance followed by debt of the sort that would make a brilliant TV costume drama.

In time the estate it was part of was split up in all directions, and this bizarre collection of  features set in amongst four natural sandstone crags jutting out of the Shropshire Plain decayed and lay forgotten by all but a few.

The BBC's Narnia series were filmed here

But in 1990 a rescue mission was mounted, and less than three years and £4 million later, it opened to the paying public once again, restored, at least in part, to its former glory.

Today it’s one of the county’s top tourist attractions, pulling in 60,000 visitors a year. It’s also a popular film location. The BBC filmed The Chronicles of Narnia here, while it’s popular with American film crews making a never-ending stream of documentaries about King Arthur. 

In amongst the tree-capped hills there’s a tower, a 100 ft tall column with a statue on top and a platform that gives views to the Wrekin, the Breiddens and Wales, down to Cannock chase and across the plains of Shropshire and Cheshire.

There’s a grotto, a driveway through a stone arch and a series of caves on one of the hilltops, and a network of pathways that lead to spectacular views from clifftops.

But how did all this get here? Who built it and why?

The Cleft and Swiss Bridge

The story begins with the building of a castle by Henry de Audley in the year 1227. Rising out of the plains as they do, one of the crags was an ideal location for the Lord of the Welsh Marches, as well as the constable of both Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth castles to set up home.

Unfortunately the Audleys, Lords of Red Castle, as they were known, were not the luckiest of families, and many met untimely deaths. When John Touchet took the title through his sister, he at least managed to survive wars with Owain Glyndwr and the Battle of Shrewsbury, where he fought against Hotspur, but his son James was killed at the Battle of Blore Heath in 1459.

The end of the line for the Audleys came when James’ grandson (another James) led a rebellion against the King in 1497 and was executed. The castle fell into ruin.

Eventually the land passed via Sir Andrew Corbet of Moreton Corbet to Sir Rowland Hill, the First Baronet, who happened to live next door  between 1737 and 1756.
By then, major changes had begun to happen in the land around the Red Castle. Sir Rowland was the great, great, great, grandson of Sir Rowland Hill, the first Protestant Lord Mayor of London. Apart from being descended from a long line of people called Rowland, the First Baronet had a bit of a taste for landscape gardening on a grand scale.

His father, Richard, ‘The Great Hill’ had travelled, but also made ridiculous sums of money by what was described as ‘lucrative arithmetick’, with which he raised the family into the aristocracy. He rebuilt the family seat of Hawkstone Hall, while his son concentrated on the grounds, as well as extending the estate.

Sandstone cliff at Hawkstone Park

By the time he died the place was packed with curiosities, not least of which was a real life hermit, who would dispense wisdom to visitors.

Making the most of the lie of the land, he laid out walks over the four natural hills and the park grew so much in reputation, that it received a visit from a distinguished guest – Dr Samuel Johnson.

Dr Johnson was impressed, remarking on “…the awfulness of its shades, the horror of its precipices….”. He also said it needed water – a remark Sir Roland’s son took to heart.

The obelisk and Sir Rowland Hill statue

Sir Richard Hill, the Second Baronet, took over on his father’s death in 1783 and decided Hawkstone should be introduced to a wider public. He had a guide to the place published, and soon the tourists were rolling in.

Sir Richard enlisted landscape gardener William Emes to build a vast lake, the Hawk River, but the tourists were becoming so plentiful that he had to build the Hawkstone Inn and Hotel to house them.

He added the ‘ruined’ Gothic arch on Grotto Hill, the urn, a tribute to a Civil War ancestor, but most noticeably the obelisk, a 100 feet high column with an internal staircase, topped by a statue of the family’s founding father, the original Sir Rowland Hill. Added to this there were numerous other changes, including the erection of the Swiss Bridge.

View from the top of the obelisk

Hawkstone Park was one of Britain’s top attractions by the time the Second Baronet died in 1809, and his brother took over the estate, leaving it roughly as it was.

But after generations of gradual building and improving, it was all about to go off the rails. The Fourth Baronet (yet another) Sir Rowland Hill, inherited a large fortune, but still managed to spend all of it. He created two new drives, one at vast expense in a rock cutting, and even considered completely relocating the hall across the park.

His son, Rowland Clegg Hill, inherited a mess in 1875, but was bankrupt within 20 years. The contents of the hall were sold, and then in 1906, splitting up of the estate began in earnest.

The Citadel is no longer part of the park

By then the walks and all the features had been neglected for a good 50 years, and the estate was sold off bit by bit around it. The hall and lake were bought by a religious retreat in the 1920s, while the hotel and a large part of the park – later to become a golf course – were sold, too.

During World war Two, parts of the park were even used as a prisoner of war camp, and the decay of the follies continued. By the time it was bought in 1990, the walks were overgrown, the column had lost its statue and suffered from weather erosion, the white tower was very dilapidated and the Red Castle, once a feature in the walks, was a shadow of its former self.

Today, Hawkstone Park lives again and is protected as a Grade I historic park, although the restoration isn’t finished yet. Plans are afoot to open up the Red Castle area, but modern safety standards mean it may not be as easy to do as it used to be.

The Gothic arch on Grotto Hill

The park near the village of Weston Under Redcastle, and is signposted from the A49 between Shrewsbury and Whitchurch. Opening times and days vary throughout the year, so it's best to check Hawkstone Park's website for that and admission charge information.