Rowton appears to be the picture-perfect castle but, even though its site is old, the present building is, in fact, a highly picturesque early nineteenth-century re-fronting of a rectangular Queen Anne block.

Of its predecessor, Camden wrote that: ‘Rowton Castle, the most ancient of all the rest [of Shropshire’s castles], towards the west borders of the shire, not farre from Severne…’

A property of the Burnells from the thirteenth century, Rowton descended to the Lovells and was sold, with the manor of Amaston, in 1463 to William Lyster, a Shrewsbury merchant, who was styled Lord of Rowton by 1482. The Lysters and their descendants thereafter remained the owners of Rowton until the property’s sale in circa 1922. Of their early seat nothing appears to survive.

At the time of the Civil Wars, Thomas Lyster was, like many of Shropshire’s gentry, a Royalist and his house at Rowton was, for a time, a garrison for the King. This Royalist association gave rise to a fatuous story, seemingly fabricated by G.W. Fisher in The Annals of Shrewsbury School (1899), that Lyster’s wife had defended the house during a siege. There is no evidence for this story which is similar to the actual siege at High Ercall Hall (q.v.).

Thomas Lyster died in 1656 and he was succeeded by Richard Lyster (d. 1698) who served as High Sheriff of Shropshire in 1684. In his will of 1696, Richard Lyster left instructions to his executors to spend £1,000 in the building of a new house at Rowton ‘upon the bank where the old castle stands, or near thereunto’. This house, built for Richard Lyster’s grandson and namesake (d. 1766) was a two-storeyed brick building of circa 1700, of three-by-five bays and with a hipped roof set with dormers. It remains at the core of the present mansion and parts of the hipped roof structure and a sash window are still evident on the exterior.