Country houses can feel at times a little drab and serious — but not so at Burlton Hall, where a vibrant restoration has brought wonderful life to a beautiful old house.
Down in rural north Shropshire, James Sibley of Strutt & Parker in Shrewsbury quotes a guide price of £2.2m for historic, Grade II-listed Burlton Hall at Burlton, near Loppington, seven miles from the ‘lakeland’ town of Ellesmere and 10 miles from Shrewsbury.
The hall — which dates back to 1421 — stands in almost three acres of park-like gardens in the heart of this popular north Shropshire village.
Renovated to the highest of standards under the direction of local craftsmen Nick Over and Chris Ayres, the house offers 8,153sq ft of colourful living space which dazzles the eye almost from the moment you cross the threshold, thanks to an exquisite, carved vestibule that dates back centuries.
There are five principal reception rooms arranged off the central hallway, while a wing to the north houses the kitchen, breakfast room and larder.
There is also a large family kitchen, nine bedrooms, six bathrooms and a shower room.
Outbuildings include a two-storey folly, a brick paved courtyard with the original farm bell and a restored stable block, now used as a workshop, plant room, gym and barn.
Keen equestrians might want to move in and convert the workshop back to stables, for this is wonderful riding country, with easy access to a host of local bridleways and footpaths, and, via the A5/M54 and the M6, to the conurbations of Birmingham and the West Midlands.
Painstakingly restored by its current owners over the past 15 years, the remarkable, multi-gabled, timber-frame house as it stands today is in large part 17th century and Victorian; although, according to Historic England, the ornamental wooden porch, inscribed ‘Remember yr Laterena/1420’, suggests that the house was begun at about that time.
The original L-shaped hall house stands on land granted by Roger de Montgomery to the Abbey of St Peter and St Paul in Shrewsbury, which sublet it to local yeomen farmers until the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
Since the English Civil Wars, the house has had a succession of religious and aristocratic owners, including Sir George Penruddock, whose father led the ill-fated Penruddock Uprising in 1655 and subsequently lost his lands, followed by the Chambre family and later the Vaughans, descendants of the ancient princes and nobles of Wales.
Burlton Hall is for sale at £2.2 million — see more details and pictures.
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