Monument Type(s):

• COUNTRY HOUSE (17th century - 1607 AD to 1607 AD)

Summary

A country house, circa 1607, which is protected by Grade I Listing.

Related records

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events: None recorded

Description

Splendid example of a Carolean manor house built by the Whitmore family circa 1607. Surrounded by a moat and well-kept formal gardens. Square on plan; red brick with stone dressings. The principal facade has 3 curvilinear gables, the centre one being recessed and having a round bay carried up 2 storeys with balustraded parapet; stone mullioned and transomed windows, some with old lattice glazing. Attic gable windows have ornamental pediments with swags and side scroll panels. Tiled roof and tall Tudor chimneys with coupled stacks. Interior: Plaster strapwork ceilings, overmantels and panelling largely original or well restored; original staircase. The place was well restored circa 1870. Approached by a short avenue of clipped yews <1>

Leach includes a photograph of the exterior and describes in some detail the restoration work done in the 1870s.<3>

Built for John Whitmore who probably obtained a plan and front elevation from a professional surveyor in London (or Oxford) but used local craftsmen to carry them out. Carefully restored and enlarged in 1873 for Joseph Round Cartwright by Robert Griffiths. The house stands in a square moat and is approched from the E between a pair of low pyramid-roofed lodges, of C17 brick on a masonry substructure which may be medieval. The house faces S, and is an H in plan, the wings considerably extended northwards. In the centre of S front a two-storey bow fully glazed by mullion and transom windows above and below. Entablatures over the windows and a top balcony serving the window in the central gable. This gable and those over the wings have an elaborate profile, going up in a quadrant, step and long wave to a semi-circular top. Fanciful windows in the gables, the two middle lights tall with a transom and linked to the outer lights by volutes. Four-light transomed windows on both main storeys, in the wings and to l. and r, of the central bow. Continual string courses. Paired niched low down flanking the bow. A modestly enriched doorway in the inner face of the l. wing. Round the corner to E and W the symmetry breaks down. Only the projecting chimney-breasts with tall star stacks here and in the centre at the back maintain it. NE wing extended in early C20. ->

-> The Hall occupies the centre of the house. Single-storeyed, the screen largely Jacobean but rearranged with two archways instead of the original one. The enriched plaster ceiling is of the 1870s, but the chimneypiece and overmantel with big strapwork cartouche are early C17. Parlour has Jacobean panelling with Corinthian pilasters with jewel and spindle enrichment. Staircase leads to Great Chamber over the Hall. Chimneypiece with male and female headed terms, and a strapwork cartouche in the overmantel decorated with three big bosses of opaque blue glass. All round the room a deep plaster frieze, vine trail with ivy leaves on the cornice. In the smaller room adjoining the SW a plaster frieze with glass bosses and an overmantel with the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife and caryatids l. and r., all done rather rustically. Plate 58 shows entrance front. <5>

Photographed during aerial survey in 2007. <6>

A staircase in each wing allowed all first-floor rooms to be reached from the ground floor without violating the privacy of the great chamber. <7>

In the early 1870s the house was restored and new buildings added, including a stable in 1873. Cartwright employed the architect Robert Griffiths of Stafford and the builders George and Frederick Higham of Wolverhampton. The original main entrance was changed from the east to the south, and a new lodge at the start of the new approach drive. The gardens were made anew in a style to match the house and surrounding fields partly converted into parkland. <8>

<00> Shropshire County Council SMR, Site and Monuments Record (SMR) cards, SMR Card for PRN SA 11770 (Card index). SSA20722.

<01> Department of the Environment (DoE), 1974-Feb-01, 4th List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, p125 (List of Buildings). SSA599.

<02> Pevsner Nikolaus, 1958, Buildings of England (Shropshire), p190 (Monograph). SSA110.

<03> Leach F, 1891, The County Seats of Shropshire, p175-179 (Monograph). SSA535.

<04> Oswald A, 1952, Article in Country Life, Jan 11th 1952 (Article in serial). SSA11373.

<05> Newman J & Pevsner N, 2006, Buildings of England: Shropshire, pp.386-7 (Monograph). SSA23518.

<06> Shropshire Council, 2008-Jul-26, SA0811_053 (1 photo) Flight: 08_SA_11 (Oblique aerial photograph). SSA25315.

<07> Mercer Eric, 2003, English Architecture to 1900: The Shropshire Experience, p.145 (Monograph). SSA23161.

<08> Morriss Richard K, 2018, Land at Ludstone Hall, Shropshire: a heritage impact assessment on proposed lodges, p.10 (Deskbased survey report). SSA30498.

Sources

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.