Kinnerley Village

Kinnerley Early History

Kinnerley is mentioned in the Domesday Book with the information that the Lords of the Manor were Dunning and Algar. Later it passed into the hands of King Henry II who in due course presented it to Gervase Goch.

We next hear of KINNERLEY in 1221 when Madoc de Sutton was Lord of the Manor.  He is stated as paying homage to Henry III.  Early in 1223 King Henry ordered the Sheriff of Shropshire to give full possession of the castles of Whittington and KINNERLEY to Baldwin de Hodnet who had an army capable of resisting the Welsh Prince Llewellyn who, at this time, was continually harassing the English.  In September 1223, Llewellyn took KINNERLEY castle by storm.  The King threatened to have the Welsh Prince excommunicated.  This resulted in Llewellyn surrendering the castle as he feared excommunication far more than he did the King's army.

The Prince's penitence cannot have been very sincere for we find that he occupied KINNERLEY castle once again in 1225.  He was, however. ejected by the English after a tough battle.  Smarting under this defeat. Llewellyn mustered a large army and in 1228 he imprisoned Madoc ap Griffith. a kinsman of Baldwin de Hodnet.  Llewellyn was now in open militant rebellion, for he then proceeded to lay siege to Montgomery castle, and then on to the famous battle between the Welsh and English at Kerry.  So Llewellyn occupied KINNERLEY on no fewer than three occasions during his lifetime.

Later on a certain James de Audley held KINNERLEY peaceably until he went overseas with King Richard the Lionheart in 1257.  The Welsh then re-occupied KINNERLEY, but Audley returned in 1258 and ejected them.  The Welsh, however, came back in 1264 and burnt the castle together with the surrounding buildings.  Then we had the great war between the English and Welsh armies in the same year and KINNERLEY was once again recaptured by the English.  It has remained in English hands from that day to this.

Still later the Manor of KINNERLEY passed into the hands of the Fitz-Alan family who retained it with the majority of the Manors which were called the Oswestry Hundreds.  (The present Duke of Norfolk is a direct descendant of the Fitz-Alan's.)  Then the Order of the Knights of the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem took over both the Church and the Manor, and held them until the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

After the Reformation, the usual pattern seems to have been observed.  The township of KINNERLEY, comprising of Argoed, Maesbrook Isa and Maesbrook Ucha, Edgerley, Osbaston, Tirycoed and Kynaston was given over to smallholders plus a nucleus of rich farmers.

The Castle

There is not the slightest shred of doubt that the mound at Belan Bank is the KINNERLEY Castle referred to above.  This monument is the site of an early castle.  The first Norman castles erected after 1066 were defensive structures of earth and timber and consisted of two parts.

• The motte or mound surmounted by a stockade and timber tower.
• The courtyard or bailey at its foot defended by a ditch, bank and stockade.

Belan Bank is a good example of such a castle.  We may safely infer from comparison with other castles of that period that it was constructed, and was in use, within the period 1070 - 1264 A.D.