Editing Stokesay Castle (section)

===Buildings===
[[File:Stokesay Castle gatehouse.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|The gatehouse viewed from inside the courthouse]]

The gatehouse is a two-storeyed, 17th-century building with exposed timber and plasterwork, constructed in a distinctively local Shropshire style.<ref>{{harvnb|Summerson|2012|p=5}}; {{cite web | url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/stokesay-castle/history-and-research/description/ | title=Description of Stokesay Castle | mode = cs2| access-date=28 December 2013 |publisher=English Heritage}}</ref> It features elaborate wooden carvings on the exterior and interior doorways, including [[angel]]s, the biblical characters of [[Adam]], [[Eve]] and the [[Serpent (Bible)|Serpent]] from the [[Garden of Eden]], as well as dragons and other nude figures.<ref>{{harvnb|Summerson|2012|p=5}}</ref> It was designed as essentially an ornamental building, with little defensive value.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/stokesay-castle/history-and-research/description/ | title=Description of Stokesay Castle | mode = cs2|access-date=28 December 2013 |publisher=English Heritage}}</ref>

The south tower forms an unequal pentagon in shape, and has three storeys with thick walls.<ref>{{harvnb|Summerson|2012|pp=19–20}}; {{harvnb|Cordingley|1963|p=92}}</ref> The walls were built to contain the stairs and [[garderobe]]s, the unevenly positioned empty spaces weakening the structure, and this meant that two large buttresses had to be added to the tower during its construction to support the walls.<ref>{{harvnb|Cordingley|1963|p=96}}</ref> The current floors are Victorian in origin, having been built after the fire of 1830, but the tower remains unglazed, as in the 13th century, with shutters at the windows providing protection in winter.<ref name="Summerson 2012 19–20">{{harvnb|Summerson|2012|pp=19–20}}</ref> The basement was originally only accessible from the first floor, and would have provided a secure area for storage, in addition to also containing a well.<ref>{{harvnb|Summerson|2012|p=22}}; {{harvnb|Cordingley|1963|p=92}}</ref> The first floor, which formed the original entrance to the tower, contains a 17th-century fireplace, reusing the original 13th-century chimney.<ref name="Summerson 2012 19–20"/> The second floor has been subdivided in the past, but has been restored to form a single chamber, as it would have been when first built.<ref>{{harvnb|Summerson|2012|p=20}}</ref>

The roof of the south tower provides views of the surrounding landscape; in the 13th-century protective wooden [[mantlet]]s would have been fitted into the gaps of the [[merlon]]s along the battlements, and during the English Civil War it was equipped with additional wooden defences to protect the garrison.<ref name="Summerson 2012 21"/>

[[File:The_Solar,_Stokesay_Castle.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|left|The solar block]]

The hall and solar block are adjacent to the south tower, and were designed to be symmetrical when seen from the courtyard, although the addition of the additional stone buttresses in the 19th century has altered this appearance.<ref>{{harvnb|Summerson|2012|pp=6–8}}</ref> The hall is {{convert|54.5|ft}} long and {{convert|31|ft}} wide, with has three large, wooden 13th-century arches supporting the roof, unusually, given its size, using lateral wooden collars, but no vertical [[king-post]]s.<ref>{{harvnb|Summerson|2012|pp=8–9}}; {{harvnb|Cordingley|1963|p=99}}</ref> The roof's cruck [[joist]]s now rest on 19th-century stone supports, but would have originally reached down to the ground.<ref name=Summerson2012P9>{{harvnb|Summerson|2012|p=9}}</ref> The roof is considered by the historian Henry Summerson to be a "rare survival for the period".<ref>{{harvnb|Summerson|2012|p=8}}</ref> In the medieval period a wooden screen would have cut off the north end, providing a more secluded dining area.<ref name=Summerson2012P9/>

The solar block has two storeys and a cellar, and would have probably acted as the living space for Laurence of Ludlow when he first moved into the castle.<ref>{{harvnb|Summerson|2012|p=16}}</ref> The solar room itself is on the first floor, and is reached by external steps.<ref name=Summerson2012P17>{{harvnb|Summerson|2012|p=17}}</ref> The wood panelling and carved wooden fireplace are of 17th-century origin, probably from around 1640.<ref name=Summerson2012P17/> This woodwork would have originally been brightly painted, and included spy-holes so that the hall could be observed from the solar.<ref>{{harvnb|Summerson|2012|p=18}}</ref>

The three-storey north tower is reached by a 13th-century staircase in the hall, which leads onto the first floor.<ref name=Summerson2012P11/> The first floor was divided into two separate rooms shortly after the construction of the tower, and contain various decorative tiles, probably from Laurence's house in Ludlow.<ref name=Summerson2012P11>{{harvnb|Summerson|2012|pp=11–12}}</ref> The walls of the second floor are mostly half-timbered, [[Overhang (architecture)|jettying]] out above the stone walls beneath them; the tower has its original 13th-century fireplace, although the wooden roof is 19th-century, modelled on the 13th-century original, and the windows are 17th-century insertions.<ref>{{harvnb|Summerson|2012|p=14}}; {{harvnb|Cordingley|1963|p=96}}</ref> The details and the carpenters' personal marks on the woodwork show that the hall, solar and north tower were all constructed under the direction of the same carpenter in the late 1280s and early 1290s.<ref>{{harvnb|Summerson|2012|p=10}}; {{harvnb|Cordingley|1963|p=99}}</ref>