This was a motte and bailey castle which was probably founded by Roger de Montgomerie, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury on a prominent hill to the east of the town, overlooking the Mere, soon after the Norman conquest. It was given to the Peverel family by Henry I but taken back by Henry II who granted it to David, son of Owain Gwynedd, Prince of Wales in about 1177. It alternated between the English and Welsh crowns until the 1240s when it passed to the le Strange family whose origins were in Knockin, Shropshire.