Hawkstone Hall is a large early 18th century country mansion near Hodnet, Shropshire which is occupied as the pastoral centre of a religious organisation. It is a Grade I listed building.[1]
The manor was acquired by Sir Rowland Hill (MP) in 1556 and remained the seat of the family for some 350 years. The present house was built between 1700 and 1725 by Richard Hill, second of the Hill Baronets.
The financial difficulties of Rowland Clegg-Hill, the 3rd Viscount Hill[2] who was bankrupt by the time of his death in 1895, forced the sale of the contents of the hall and then the split up of the estate by 1906. It was sold to the Liberal politician George Whitely,later Baron Marchamley of Hawkstone, who had previously represented Stockport and Pudsey in the House of Commons – Liberal whip in Parliament – later to become Lord Marchamley in 1908 . George Whiteley had the hall renovated and the wings reduced in length by Wm. 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 servant’s quarters. The Hall was acquired after Lord Marchamley's death by the Roman Catholic Redemptorist Order in 1926 and until 1973 was a seminary. Latterley it has been a Pastoral and Renewal Centre open to the public in August, courtesy of English Heritage roof repair funds.