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Along the Moors - Apley
Apley Castle
Travelling northwards on Whitchurch Road, the route is lined along some of its length by the former boundary walls of Dothill Park and Apley Castle. The Apley estate, which lay to the east of the highway, was first mentioned as an outlying farmstead belonging to Wellington Manor at the time of Domesday in 1086, although the name itself may have derived from the phrase ‘Apple-Lea’ and is probably Anglo-Saxon in origin. Throughout its long history, the fortunes of Apley were synonymous with the Charlton family, whose considerable influence around Wellington can still be seen today — in the names of its streets, pubs and the town coat of arms, which contains a portcullis representing the castle.
It is not clear when the Charlton’s acquired Apley, although the first members of the dynasty to which any detailed records relate are the family of Robert Charlton, who lived in the late 13th Century. His son Alan, knighted in 1324, eventually inherited Apley and set about improving the property, after receiving license from Edward II to fortify his manor house ‘with a wall of stone and lime’ in 1327. While no trace of the mansion that Sir Alan built survives, archaeological evidence suggests it was located on the same site as the edifice that replaced it, which was begun in 1567 by Andrew Charlton using stone from the original building. This castellated structure was apparently based on Sir Alan’s original design, with a central hall and cross wings, but was much larger than its predecessor. It seems construction work was somewhat protracted and the new Apley does not appear to have been completely finished until 1620, although it was not long before large parts of the house came tumbling down again.