Hawkstone Hall

Coordinates: 52°51′55″N 2°37′24″W / 52.8652°N 2.6233°W / 52.8652; -2.6233

Hawkstone Hall

Hawkstone Hall is a 43,400 square feet (4,030 m2)[1] early 18th-century country mansion near Hodnet, Shropshire, England which was more recently occupied as the pastoral centre of a religious organisation. It is a Grade I listed building.[2]

The manor was acquired by Sir Rowland Hill in 1556 and remained the seat of the family for some 350 years. The house was built between 1700 and 1725 by Richard Hill of Hawkstone (1655–1727), second of the Hill baronets, of Hawkstone. Brothers Rowland (1st Viscount Hill) and Robert Hill, who fought at the 1815 Battle of Waterloo were both born at the Hall.

The financial difficulties of Rowland Clegg-Hill, the 3rd Viscount Hill who was bankrupt at the time of his death in 1895, forced the sale of the hall's contents and the split up of the estate by 1906.

It was sold to the Liberal politician George Whitely, who had previously represented Stockport and Pudsey in the House of Commons, where he was a Liberal whip in Parliament – later to become Baron Marchamley in 1908. George Whiteley had the hall renovated and the wings reduced in length by William Tomkinsons of Liverpool, supervised by H.P. Dallow, brother in law of Henry Price.[3] The chapel wing was reconstructed as a games room with dance floor and the other wing as servants’ quarters.

The hall was acquired after Lord Marchamley's death by the Roman Catholic Redemptorist Order in 1926 and, until 1973, was a seminary. The Order added a chapel in 1932 and further extended the Hall in 1962, converting the north-east service wing into a residential wing.[4] The seminary relocated in 1973, and since 1975 the Hall has been a Pastoral and Renewal Centre. [5]

In July 2014, the order put the hall up for sale.[6] A sale was proposed to an anonymous buyer for £4m in July 2015.[4] However in January 2016 the sale fell through and plans went ahead for it to be mothballed from April 2016.

References

  1. ↑ "Hawkstone Hall".
  2. ↑ Heritage Gateway; architectural description of Hawkstone Hall
  3. ↑ Henry Price (architect)
  4. 1 2 "Hawkstone Hall sold for about £4m. Mystery surrounds identity of owner". Shropshire Star. 29 May 2015. p. 17.Report by James Pugh.
  5. ↑ "Hawkstone Hall".
  6. ↑ "Hawkstone Hall goes up for sale with a £5m price". Shropshire Star. 14 July 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2014.

See also

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