Record number of visitors attend Shrewsbury Castle for special open day

Sunday proved to be a record breaking day at Shrewsbury Castle as a new record for visitor numbers in one day was set.

The castle welcomed visitors for its annual opening of Laura’s Tower which is available for people to tour for one day a year for the Heritage Open Days festival.

Shrewsbury Castle welcomed more than 2,705 visitors for the annual opening of Laura’s Tower, eclipsing the previous record set in 2017 of 2,003.

Ian Pritchard, Shrewsbury Castle custodian for Shropshire Council, said: "It was great to see the castle so busy even if it was a manic day for myself and our wonderful volunteers.

"The opening of Laura’s Tower is always a fantastic occasion which proves to be very popular with our visitors so we’re happy that it, once again, proved to be the case.

"I hope everyone who visited us had a great time."

Lezley Picton, Shropshire Council Cabinet member for culture, leisure, waste and communications, said: "I’m delighted to see that Shrewsbury Castle was so busy for the Heritage Open Days festival.

“We are very keen to raise the profile of the castle so more people can enjoy it, so to see that so many people wanted to visit is very encouraging.

Shrewsbury Castle is a Scheduled Ancient Monument (SAM) and is one of the oldest in the country. It is also a Grade 1 listed building and was first listed by Historic England in 1953.

The castle is one of the best-preserved, Conquest-period earthwork castles in England, but is also one of the least well-known. It is unusually well preserved because it escaped rebuilding.

The first ever excavation of the castle has recently been completed during which two military arrowheads dating to Medieval England and the original Norman motte ditch were discovered.