Condover Hall

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Condover Hall is an elegant three story Elizabethan sandstone building set on the outskirts of the village of Condover, Shropshire.

A Royal manor in Saxon times, until the sixteenth century Condover Hall was in and out of Crown Tenure until, in 1586, Elizabeth made a grant of the current structure to Thomas Owen.

Built out of pink sandstone, Condover Hall has the typical Elizabethan two storey high ground floor rooms lit by tall windows with their regular mullions and double transoms. There are fine chimneys, gables and a good example of a strapwork frieze. The grounds are laid out in formal 17th century style with boxed yew hedges and sandstone balustraded terraces decorated with Italian terracotta vases. Near the Cound Brook there is an amusing flagstaff held by a sandstone gnome.

Owned for many years by the Cholmondeley family, Mary Cholmondeley (1859-1925) lived in the hall for a few months in 1896 before moving to London. Her uncle, Reginald Cholmondeley owned the house before this and was host to the American writer Mark Twain (1835-1910) when he visited in 1873 and 1879.

Local legend holds that no heir to Condover Hall will prosper since the hall was cursed from the gallows by a butler falsely accused of murder: Before Heaven I am innocent, though my master’s son swears me guilty. And as I perish an innocent man, may those who follow my murdered lord be cursed. The butler had been condemned by the lies of the son of Knyvett, lord of the manor, who stabbed his father to death. As he stumbled down the basement stairs, Knyvett reached out his bloodied hand leaving an imprint upon the wall which defied all attempts to wash it away - the marked stone had to be eventually chipped clean.

Before 2005 it was owned by the RNIB when it was sold to new owners who plan to open a school for autistic children and a further education college for young people with Asperger's Syndrome.