Morville Hall is a grade I listed

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

and gardens in the care of the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

in the county of

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. Morville Hall is located at the junction of the A458 road and the B4368 road, three miles outside the

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

Bridgnorth Bridgnorth is a town in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the 2011 Census was 12,079. History B ...

. It is a large grey stone mansion with projecting wings, originally built in two storeys in the 16th-century but increased to three as part of an 18th-century enlargement. Once part of the

Aldenham Aldenham is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, north-east of Watford and southwest of Radlett. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book and is one of Hertsmere's 14 conservation areas. The village has eight pre-19th-century listed build ...

estate, the house stands on the site of the abandoned

Morville Priory Morville Priory was a small Benedictine monastery in Shropshire, England, a cell of Shrewsbury Abbey. Location Morville today is a hamlet on the road between Bridgnorth and Much Wenlock, with Morville Hall, owned by the National Trust, the most ...

. Morville Hall was originally an

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...

country house dating from 1546, at the time the site was acquired by Roger Smyth, who married into the local Cressett family. It was enlarged and expanded around 1750 by Arthur Weaver, MP for

. The gardens are the main attraction for many visitors and incorporates the

Dower house A dower house is usually a moderately large house available for use by the widow of the previous owner of an English, Scottish or Welsh estate. The widow, often known as the "dowager", usually moves into the dower house from the larger family h ...

Gardens and features such as a Cloister garden and Elizabethan

knot garden A knot garden is a garden of formal design in a square frame, consisting of a variety of aromatic plants and culinary herbs including germander, marjoram, thyme, southernwood, lemon balm, hyssop, costmary, acanthus, mallow, chamomile, rosemary ...

. The gardens have been a 15-year project for Katherine Swift who wanted to show how gardens have developed and evolved through history. Each section of her garden relates to a previous occupant of the Hall, from the Elizabethan Smyths through to the 18th century Weavers, and finally to the seven Victorian age Warren sisters who lived on in the house long after the death of their father, the last one, Juliana, dying in the 1920s. The property has belonged to the

since 1965.

References

External links

National Trust website on Morville HallVisit Bridgnorth feature on Morville Hall & Gardenswww.geograph.co.uk : photos of Morville Hall and surrounding area
{{coord, 52.5429, -2.4896, display=title, region:GB_scale:2000 Historic house museums in Shropshire National Trust properties in Shropshire Country houses in Shropshire Gardens in Shropshire Buildings and structures in Shropshire Grade I listed buildings in Shropshire

See also

References

External links