I stood in the rain waiting for the sun to come out - and the result was this shot of Stokesay Castle.

My aim was to photograph the castle bathed in sunlight, with the background in shadow, and after half an hour of rain that’s exactly what I got. Ragleth Hill can be seen in the distance.

On the left is the south tower, a self-contained building with walls that are two metres thick, which was designed to look like a fortified gatehouse.

The ‘real’ gatehouse - which is much smaller - can be seen on the right.

Beautiful Stokesay is recognised as the best-preserved fortified medieval manor house in England. 

It was constructed at the end of the 13th century by Laurence of Ludlow, who at the time was one of the richest men in England. 

Afterwards I headed to the Community Shop at Aston-on-Clun to drop off new supplies of our Shropshire greetings cards and calendars.

This is a wonderful village enterprise and I can personally recommend their local honey.