Believed to be a medieval hunting lodge dating from the reign of King William II. Stourton Castle was evidently 'the King's Houses' in Kinver during the reign of King Henry II. It was called a castle in 1122. By that time, the castle and the manor of Kinver and Stourton, together with the custody of the forest of Kinver were held by John son of Philip at a fee farm rent of £9. The king resumed possession of the manor in 1293 and granted it back to John (probably the other's grandson) for life. The king granted the keepership of the forest to Hugh Tyrel in 1339, adding the manor in 1340, but the property was in wardship from 1343 until the majority of another Hugh Tyrel in 1362. Following his death in 1381, the property passed to Richard Hampton. It passed down his family until the death of his great-grandson John Hampton in 1472.