BISHOP'S CASTLE, municipal borough, Shropshire, Eng land, situated on a steep hillside above an important lowland route from south Shropshire into Wales (see MONTGOMERYSHIRE). Pop. (1931) 1,352. This historic road from Ludlow past Stokesay was controlled by the castle of the bishops of Hereford, placed where the gap between the mountain line of Longmynd and Stiperstones and that of the Clun Forest narrows at the watershed between the rivers Camlad and Onny. The position is said to have been held by the bishops from the 8th century, and the castle was built by them between o85 and '154. to guard the route. By the i3th century a town had sprung up round the castle walls, and the historic "Road of the Castles" saw movements of many kinds. Richard II. gave the town a market every Wednesday and a fair on Nov. 2, and two days following. Although it was evi dently a borough by the i3th century it has no charter earlier than the incorporation charter granted by Elizabeth in 1572. The estates of the bishops appropriated by Queen Elizabeth amounted to 18,000 acres. Only slight fragments of the castle remain. The church, with the exception of the tower, was rebuilt in 186o. There are important fairs for the sale of the cattle and sheep bred in the valleys of the Onny, Camlad and Clun tributaries. The coach-road into Wales under the Kerry Hills has been re placed by a modern road avoiding the steep slopes through the town; and Bishop's Castle suffers in consequence. There is a branch railway from Craven Arms.
The town is governed by a mayor, four aldermen, and 12 coun cillors. Area 1,867 acres. It was represented until 1832, but now forms, with the boroughs of Ludlow and Bridgnorth, etc., part of the Ludlow parliamentary division of Shropshire.