Pitchford Hall
Pitchford Hall is a
It was built c.1560 on the site of a medieval building and has been modified several times since, particularly in the 1870s and 1880s when it was substantially restored, remodelled and extended. It is a timber-framed two-storey building with rendered red sandstone panels, a stone roof and brick chimneys. The floor plan is E-shaped round a courtyard to the south with a Victorian service wing to the west. There is also an orangery and walled garden on the grounds.
A deer park established in 1638 was disparked in 1790. 100 metres north of the hall is a bitumen well, near a ford across the Row Brook, from which the village gets its name. The bitumen or pitch was once used for waterproofing the timbers of the house. A 17th-century tree house in a large lime tree is one of the oldest in the world. A stretch of the Roman Watling Street runs through the estate.
The hall and its contents were sold at auction in 1992. The hall was repurchased in 2016 by the Colthurst family, who had retained the estate, and is under restoration after falling derelict.
House
The house has 42 rooms[1] and is a Tudor timber-framed building on a plinth of sandstone rubble, with rendered infill panels. It is on an E plan, with a main courtyard in the south and a service wing in the west. It was Grade I listed in January 1952.[2] There is a priest hole.[3]
Several outbuildings, walls, and garden features at Pitchford are also on the listed buildings register. The 17th-century tree house, one of the oldest in the world,
St. Michael's Church, the parish church of Pitchford, is opposite the hall and also Grade I listed.[5] It is open to the public and holds services once or twice a month.
History
There has been a manor house on the site since around 1284, the estate at the time being in the possession of the de Pykeford family. Geoffrey de Pykeford, a crusader, was lord of the manor from 1272 and built the local church of St Michael, which contains an oak effigy of him. Eventually, however, the family had to sell the estate to the church in the 1330s in order to repay debts.
Thomas Ottley bought the Manor of Pitchford in 1473. The present house was built c.1560 for Adam Ottley, a Shrewsbury wool merchant, and possibly incorporated elements of the previous medieval structure.
During the
In 1935 the Duke and Duchess of York (later King
By the 20th century, the house was again in need of major renovations. The Colthursts began work under the guidance of English Heritage and Andrew Arrol.[citation needed] The house was opened to the public beginning in 1990.[7]
In 1992, to satisfy obligations incurred by Oliver Colthurst as a
The former Great Western Railway Hall class locomotive No 4953, built in 1929 and now running on the Epping Ongar Railway, was named Pitchford Hall.
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h "'A Kuwaiti princess bought our 42-room ancestral home – 24 years later, we bought it back'". Daily Telegraph. 25 November 2023.
- ^ a b c "Official list entry: Pitchford Hall, Pitchford". Historic England. Retrieved 27 November 2023.
- ^ a b c d "A Tribute to Caroline Colthurst of Pitchford Hall". Shropshire Life. 18 February 2011. Archived from the original on 6 February 2012.
- ^ "Official list entry: Tree House approximately 100 metres to South West of Pitchford Hall". Historic England. Retrieved 27 November 2023.
- ^ "Church of St Michael, Pitchford". Historic England. Retrieved 27 November 2023.
- ^ "History". Pitchford estate. Retrieved 6 November 2012.
- ^ a b c Eleanor Doughty (17 April 2017). "Inside a family's epic quest to recover the country pile they were forced to give up". Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 17 April 2023.
- ^ a b c "A nice little place in the country". BBC Shropshire. 14 April 2005. Retrieved 27 November 2023.
- ^ a b "Inside the Shropshire house where the Royal Family planned to shelter if Britain was invaded during the Second World War". Country Life. 24 November 2019. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
- ^ "Pitchford Hall, nr Shrewsbury, Shropshire". Historic Houses. 11 December 2018. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
- ^ "Buildings at Risk". Historic England. 15 June 2018. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
- ^ "New life for Pitchford Hall in Shropshire". BBC Midlands Today (video, 3 mins). 8 December 2017. Retrieved 27 November 2023.
- ^ a b "Buildings at Risk". Pitchford Estate. 15 May 2019. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
External links
- Media related to Pitchford Hall at Wikimedia Commons
- Pitchford estate
- Heritage at Risk Register: Pitchford+Hall