Rowton Castle stands about six miles west of Shrewsbury at Halfway House, in 17 acres of gardens and parkland. There has been a castle on the spot for several hundred years; the house you see today is 17th century at its core and listed, and it belonged to the Lyster family until Lady Charlotte Lyster died in 1889, when it passed to her nephew Montagu Corry, the 1st Baron Rowton. In 1941 it was sold to the Royal National College for the Blind, bombed out of London during the war; a serious fire in 1953 destroyed much of the building, the college eventually moved on to Hereford in 1978, and work to turn what remained into a hotel began in 1986. It reopened, restored, in April 1989.
The grounds do a great deal of the work on a wedding day. There is a Victorian walled garden, a woodland walk, an avenue of limes, and the Linden Belvedere, a stone pavilion in the garden that is licensed for outdoor ceremonies — so if the Shropshire weather behaves, you can marry under the sky and still have a roof over the registrar. Indoors, the Cardeston Suite carries the Georgian-gothic detail and takes the ceremony, the Georgian Dining Room handles the wedding breakfast, and the Regency Ballroom is where the evening goes. The Coach House and the smaller Jaci Vianna Room are there for anything more intimate.
Weddings are exclusive use — no second party, no shared bar, no strangers wandering through your photographs — and there are 19 en-suite bedrooms in the castle sleeping 43, four-posters among them, with the honeymoon suite included in the hire and a cottage available the night before. Food comes from the castle’s own kitchen and the Cedar Restaurant, and there is a sensible no-corkage arrangement if you would rather bring your own wine for the tables.
Where the band plays
Live music happens in the Cardeston rooms, with the band in one and a DJ set up next door in the other. It is a neat arrangement: the changeover between them is a walk of a few feet rather than a twenty-minute silence while cables come out, so the room never really empties. The castle has its own sound system and dancefloor in place, and the proportions of these rooms — high, formal, handsome — flatter a band with a bit of brass about it.
How the evening runs
Bands finish at around 11.30pm here and the DJ carries the room through to midnight, when the bar closes too, so the live set is the peak of the night rather than the end of it — plan the first dance for around nine and let the band build from there. A few sensible house rules are worth knowing while you plan: fireworks, smoke bombs and lasers are not permitted, though fresh petals and bubbles are very welcome.
Bands available in Shropshire and perfectly at home in a venue like this.
More live music in Shropshire.
- Shropshire Wedding Bands
- Shropshire Events Bands
- Tribute Acts in Shropshire
- Wedding DJs in Shropshire
- Corporate Entertainment in Shropshire
Worth reading before you book: Sound Limiters Explained. More questions answered on our England & Wales FAQs.