Bishop's Castle
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Template:GBmap Bishop's Castle is a small market-town in Shropshire, England, and formerly its smallest borough. It has about 1500 residents. Bishop's Castle is 4 miles East from the Welsh border, about ten miles North-west of Ludlow and about twenty miles South-west of Shrewsbury. It is also know for its alternative community.
Facilities
Although it is smaller than many villages, Bishop's Castle has all the facilities of a small town. It has a post office, two banks, butchers, a baker, a chemist, a green-grocer, three general groceries and shoe and clothes shops where you can buy walking gear. It also has several good pubs, including two which brew their own beer, and most of which also do meals. There are also half a dozen other places to eat, second hand bookshops, and several antique shops. There is no main road running through the town.
Sights in the town include Bishop's Castle Town Hall, the House on Crutches, and the Three Tuns Brewery.
History
The Castle at BC was originally a motte and bailey design built to defend the church and village from the enemy. It was built in around the time of the King Offa.
Bishop's Castle has been on a main route for travellers since prehistoric times. The inns would have provided accommodation for travellers and have stabled their horses.
The town was bypassed in the 19th century by Thomas Telford's great road further north, which ran through Shrewsbury. A branch railway was later built from Craven Arms to Bishop's Castle, but closed in 1935.
It lost its status as a borough in the 1960s, but it still elects a mayor and has a collection of ceremonial regalia.
The church of St John the Baptist lies at the lower end of the town and the remains of the castle, of which almost nothing survives, at the upper end. Between the two runs the main street.
External links
BC Online (http://bishops-castle.co.uk/)