Renovations

Had a walk around the village this evening and sneaked into the churchyard to look over the wall to see what was happening with the "big house". It was for sale earlier this year but sadly no lottery win was forthcoming and i was unable to afford the million quid it would have cost to buy it :-)

Mind you everything about it screamed "money pit" and right enough there are major renovations going on with a new roof currently being done.

A bit of history: The Hall stands on the site of the original manor house, which dated back to 1066 and is described in the Doomsday book as belonging to the Earls of Shrewsbury who retained it until it was confiscated by the Crown from the outlawed Earl Robert Montgomery. At this point King Henry I gave the hall to his wife, Queen Adeliza.

Rebuilt in 1628 (as marked on the chimney stack) by the Earls of Shrewsbury, refaced and extended in 1750 to include a seven bay Georgian front. From the early eighteen hundreds the hall was owned by the Cludde family and the Earls of Powis.

More recently the Hall has been in the hands of the Military. Leased by the War department from Colonel Henry Herbert in 1948 and subsequently bought in 1958 and has been the home of many Generals and other high ranking Army officers ever since.