Clun

A planned town and a wool economy

A new town was laid out beside Clun Castle in the twelfth century, its grid of streets divided into regular burgage plots. William Fitzalan acquired the castle through marriage in 1155. Under the Fitzalans, Clun became a prosperous wool-trading town by the middle of the thirteenth century, linking aristocratic lordship with the livelihoods of merchants and landholders. ^[2]

Border conflict repeatedly affected the castle, which was captured and burned in 1196 and withstood a siege in 1233. The family later made Arundel its principal residence, using Clun increasingly as a hunting retreat while retaining its administrative role. By 1539 Leland described it as ruinous. The town’s subsequent limited development helped preserve the medieval street pattern. ^[2]

Comfort and display above the river

The great tower, built about 1300, was a four-storey accommodation block with grand rooms and smaller private chambers within its walls. English Heritage interprets it as a display of ancestry and wealth: some arrowloops were false, and its dramatic position made it vulnerable to undermining. The tower’s impressive appearance should therefore be read alongside its domestic purpose. ^[3]

Across the river, the lordly landscape included fishponds and a moated enclosure, with an orchard and dovecote considered probable. These grounds supplied food as well as pleasure. Beyond them, Clun Forest contained woodland and pasture under special forest law, managed for the lord’s hunting. The castle’s household depended on resources and restrictions reaching well outside its walls. ^[3]

Care arranged around a courtyard

Trinity Hospital was an almshouse institution. Historic England records its foundation by Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, in 1607 and construction in 1618, followed by alterations in 1857. Dwellings and shared rooms surround a square courtyard. The recorded communal dining hall, hospital furniture and former uniform show how charity once organised daily life as well as providing shelter. ^[4]

A market hall becomes a museum

The former market hall and lock-up now houses the Museum of Clun. The Town Trust, constituted in 1924 after the old Corporation’s dissolution, took responsibility for its Elizabethan silver maces and seal. Those civic objects survived a change in government and became part of a wider collection documenting life in the Clun Forest district. ^[5]