Condover Hall
Condover Hall | |
---|---|
General information | |
Architectural style | Elizabethan |
Town or city | Condover, Shropshire |
Country | United Kingdom |
Coordinates | 52°38′47″N 02°44′52″W / 52.64639°N 2.74778°W |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
Official name | Condover Hall |
Designated | 3 November 1955 |
Reference no. | 1055706[1] |
National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens | |
Official name | Condover Hall |
Designated | 3 November 1955 |
Reference no. | 1001118[2] |
Grade | II |
Condover Hall is an elegant
A Royal
For over sixty years from 1946 the Hall was run as a residential school, initially for blind children when owned by the
Construction
Owen died in 1598 before the new Hall was completed and its designer remains a matter of debate. Building accounts record that a John Richmond of Acton Reynald was the original master mason, but by 1591 Walter Hancock had taken over the position. Lawrence Shipway, the builder of the second (not current) Shire Hall at Stafford, also appears to have had some major contribution to the building design. The most compelling evidence can be found in drawings in the Sir John Soane's Museum that seems to prove that the Hall was designed by the influential Elizabethan architect John Thorpe in the early 1590s.[4]
Built out of pink sandstone, quarried at nearby Berriewood, Condover Hall has typical Elizabethan two-storey ground-floor rooms lit by tall windows with regular mullions and double transoms. There are fine chimneys, gables and a good example of a strapwork frieze. The grounds are laid out in formal 17th-century style with boxed yew hedges and sandstone balustraded terraces decorated with Italianate terracotta vases. Near the Cound Brook is an amusing flagstaff held by a sandstone gnome.
Later years
Owned by the Owen family until 1863, the house then passed to the Cholmondeley family,
According to a local legend – noted to be "utterly at variance with facts", not least in being unsupported by the history of ownership of the house, which indicates it was granted by King Henry VIII to a Sir Henry Knyvett who lived there only briefly before selling it on[7] – no heir to Condover Hall will prosper since the hall was cursed from the gallows by a butler falsely accused of murder; he had been condemned by the lies of the son of Knyvett, lord of the manor, who stabbed his father to death. Knyvett's bloody handprint on a wall allegedly defied all attempts to wash it away.[8]
In 1930 a
Second World War
Between August 1942 and June 1945 the hall was commandeered by the War Office and pressed into service as the officers' mess for nearby RAF Condover.
Residential schools
In 1946 the Hall was purchased from its then owner, William Abbey, by
In 2011 JCA Adventure bought the house, and it now hosts children's residential adventure holidays. The Hall has undergone a multimillion-pound refurbishment programme to turn it into a well-equipped residential activity centre. Activities provided range from archery, abseiling to a laser maze and dance studio. The Hall intends to encourage physical activities and deliver cross-curricular learning opportunities. There is a Harry Potter themed spell room for younger children. Sports teams and events are hosted using the all-weather sports pitches, indoor sports hall and swimming pool, and the centre provides specific Netball coaching and match weekends. The centre can provide accommodation for 500 residents. With an occupancy of up to 500 people, the accommodation is in newly refurbished buildings throughout the estate grounds.
See also
References
- ^ Historic England. "Condover Hall (Grade I) (1055706)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
- ^ Historic England. "Condover Hall (Grade II) (1001118)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
- ^ a b c d Pugh, R.B., ed. (1968). Victoria County History of Shropshire, Volume VIII. Oxford University Press. p. 39.
- ^ public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Thorpe, John". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 882. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ISBN 0-903802-37-6.
- ^ An Illustrated Literary Guide to Shropshire, p.94.
- ^ Bradley, R. (1893). A New Guide to Shrewsbury. Shrewsbury: J.G. Livesey. p. 74.
- ^ Burne, Charlotte (1883). Shropshire Folk-Lore: A Sheaf of Gleanings. Turner & Company, London. pp. 114–116.
- ^ "Specialist colleges are to close". BBC News. 7 October 2008. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
- Shropshire by John Newman and Sir Nikolaus Pevsner (1958) ISBN 0-300-12083-4