Shugborough Hall

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Shugborough Hall in the 1820s.

Shugborough is a country estate in Milford, near Stafford, Staffordshire, England, on the north-eastern edge of Cannock Chase. It comprises a country house, kitchen garden and model farm.

Shugborough is the ancestral home of the Earls of Lichfield. It is situated near Stafford and about four miles from the market town of Rugeley and which is also about 15 miles from the city of Lichfield. The house was enlarged around 1750 and again at the turn of the 19th Century. While the entire estate is owned by the National Trust, it has been maintained and operated by Staffordshire County Council since the 1960s on a 99-year lease.

The grounds are connected to the nearby village of Great Haywood by the Essex Bridge, built in the middle ages.

The house contains a collection of photographs by the house's most illustrious resident, the royal photographer, the late Lord Patrick Lichfield.

The grounds and mansion house are open to the public and include a working model farm museum dating from 1805 complete with a working watermill, kitchens and dairy, and rare breeds of farm animals and a tea room. The walled garden, also dating from 1805, was restored in 2006 and is also open to the public.

The house incorporates the historical servants' quarters. Within these the brewhouse is to be found, which was restored in 1990. It is the only log-fired brewery in the country that still produces beer commercially. Plans are in place to open this to the public every weekend from 2007 onwards.

The grounds contain the Shepherd's Monument, also known as theShugborough House inscription which is thought by some to be an uncracked ciphertext containing a clue to the location of the Holy Grail. This, however, is not the only monument of note in the grounds, with 'The Tower of Winds', 'The Cat's Monument' and 'The Doric Temple' amongst several other interesting sculptures and buildings to be found.