![Pitchford Hall - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Pitchford_Hall_-_geograph.org.uk_-_351075.jpg)
Pitchford Hall is a large Grade I listed Tudor country house in the village of
Pitchford,
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 ...
, 6 miles south east of
Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...
.
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 in 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 Tudor style tree-house sits in a large lime tree and is believed to be the oldest tree house in the world.
The hall was sold by Caroline Colthurst, the owner of the Pitchford Estate, in 1992. It has, however, recently been reunited with the Pitchford Estate (28 September 2016) by Caroline's daughter, Rowena Colthurst and her husband James Nason.
A stretch of the Roman
Watling Street
Watling Street is a historic route in England that crosses the River Thames at London and which was used in Classical Antiquity, Late Antiquity, and throughout the Middle Ages. It was used by the ancient Britons and paved as one of the main R ...
runs through the estate.
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
Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...
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. The estate remained in the Ottley family until the death of his descendant, another Adam Ottley in 1807. The hall and estate then passed to
Hon. Charles C. C. Jenkinson, second son of the 1st Earl of Liverpool and later to his son-in-law
John Cotes. John's son Charles Cotes commissioned the London architect
George Devey
George Devey (1820, London – 1886, Hastings, Sussex) was an English architect notable for his work on country houses and their estates, especially those belonging to the Rothschild family. The second son of Frederick and Ann Devey, he was bo ...
to renovate and upgrade the house, which included the installation of replacement windows, baths and water closets. Charles died unmarried and the estate passed in 1918 to his brother-in-law Lieut-General Sir Robert Grant. Until 1992, the Colthurst family were in possession and carried out further restoration to the hall under the guidance of English Heritage and Andrew Arrol.
![Neale(1825) p2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Neale%281825%29_p2.150_-_Pitchford_Hall%2C_Shropshire.jpg)
The house was visited in 1832 by
Princess (later Queen) Victoria, who watched a fox hunt from the treehouse, and wrote in her diary the hall was "A curious looking but very comfortable house. It is striped black and white, and in the shape of a cottage".
Next century it was visited in 1935 by the Duke and Duchess of York (later King
George VI
George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until Death and state funeral of George VI, his death in 1952. ...
and Queen Elizabeth). During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Pitchford was one of the country retreats selected to house the Royal Family should they need be evacuated from the capital (see
Coats Mission
The Coats Mission was a special British army unit established in England in 1940 for the purpose of evacuating King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and their immediate family in the event of a German invasion of Britain during the Second World War. I ...
) in case of an invasion of Britain. Other stately homes in England were selected as backups, with
Hatley Castle
Hatley Park National Historic Site is located in Colwood, British Columbia, in Greater Victoria. It is the site of Hatley Castle, a Classified Federal Heritage Building. Since 1995, the mansion and estate have been used for the public Royal Ro ...
, on
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are o ...
in Canada as the final option in case German troops reached the Midlands. If that last resort option was required, the family was to travel to
Holyhead
Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and is ...
for transport to Canada by the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
.
Pitchford Church (CofE), opposite the hall, is open to the public and holds services once or twice a month.
A former
Great Western Railway Hall class locomotive No 4953, now running on the
Epping Ongar Railway
The Epping Ongar Railway is a heritage railway in south-west Essex, England, run by a small number of paid staff and a team of volunteers. It was the final section of the Great Eastern Railway branch line, later the London Underground's Centr ...
, was named ''Pitchford Hall''.
Major restorations
Between 1883 and 1889, the hall was significantly renovated and modified by George Devey but by the 20th Century, major renovations were again required.
The National Trust were unable to finance a purchase of the hall when it was being sold by the Colthurst family. It was sold to another purchaser, but the new owner left it vacant and closed. In 2016, Rowena Colthurst and James Nason, the subsequent owners of the full Estate, also bought the hall and had a long-term plan to restore and reopen it. At that time, the hall had been neglected for a quarter of a century.
As of 2019, the Grade I listed hall (Entry Number: 1177907) has not been open to the public for nearly 30 years, and is on
Historic England
Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...
's Buildings at Risk Register (page 14). The new owners have committed to reopening it after a major restoration, under a Section 106 Planning Agreement. That effort was underway in late 2019 with a view to a future reopening. By 2019, the west wing, or General's Quarters building, had been renovated and was open for holiday rental. The family were in the process of raising funds to help finance the continuing restoration of the other sections of the hall.
See also
*
Grade I listed buildings in Shropshire
Grade most commonly refers to:
* Grade (education), a measurement of a student's performance
* Grade, the number of the year a student has reached in a given educational stage
* Grade (slope), the steepness of a slope
Grade or grading may also ref ...
*
Listed buildings in Pitchford
Pitchford is a civil parish in Shropshire, England. It contains 32 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, two are listed at Grade I, the highest of the three grades, and the others are at G ...
*
Coats Mission
The Coats Mission was a special British army unit established in England in 1940 for the purpose of evacuating King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and their immediate family in the event of a German invasion of Britain during the Second World War. I ...
References
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*
External links
Pitchford estateMidlands Today Report 5 December 2017
* {{EHbarName, Pitchford+Hall
Grade I listed buildings in Shropshire
Country houses in Shropshire
Grade I listed houses
Tudor architecture