Shrewsbury Castle archaeological digs awarded £7k

A previous excavation at Shrewsbury Castle in 2020

Archaeologists have been awarded almost £7,000 to carry out new excavations at Shrewsbury Castle.

Parts of the site date back 1,000 years, but the castle was radically remodelled in the 18th Century - a move described by experts as "extremely destructive".

In the summer they will focus on the ancient motte, currently crowned with Laura's Tower.

The team also hopes to find evidence of the great hall.

Archaeologist Dr Nigel Baker said: "We know this [the motte] was the strongest point of the Norman castle".

Overlooking the river, he said the top once featured "a tall wooden tower, sometimes called the Great Tower of Shrewsbury"

That was undermined by the river and fell down in the mid-1200s.

Dr Baker will lead the dig with Dr Morn Capper of University Centre Shrewsbury.

The big question, Dr Baker said, was how much damage was done by engineer Thomas Telford when he built Laura's Tower.

"Previous digs funded by the trust found that Telford's restoration in the 1780s had been extremely destructive, though evidence survived that the site had been occupied in the Saxon period, and before the castle was built by the Normans to suppress revolt in newly conquered Shrewsbury," he said.