Condover Hall - The Story of an Elizabethan Country House
Written by John Richard Hodges
During Saxon times between 613 and 1017 the village was the principal settlement in the Hundred of Condover, which was an administrative area that was large enough to sustain approximately one hundred households. By the 11th Century, Condover was a royal manor held by King Edward the Confessor. It formed part of the great Royal forest known as ‘ The Long Forest’ that stretched almost the full length of South Shropshire.
During Saxon times between 613 and 1017 the village was the principal settlement in the Hundred of Condover, which was an administrative area that was large enough to sustain approximately one hundred households. By the 11th Century, Condover was a royal manor held by King Edward the Confessor. It formed part of the great Royal forest known as ‘ The Long Forest’ that stretched almost the full length of South Shropshire.
In 1586 Elizabeth I granted Condover to Thomas Owen.
Thomas Owen, though the son of a Shrewsbury merchant, himself followed the law, and was one of the many of the Elizabethan age who found success, not just through his profession but through prudent marriages, which was then in Thomas’s case the road to wealth and territorial importance.
He was born in Shrewsbury, close to Condover, where his family held property. He took his MA at Oxford in 1559, and in due course became of Lincoln’s Inn, of which he was Reader in 1583. Six years later he was Sergeant at Law and soon after that a member of The Council of Wales.
Judge Thomas Owen-courtesy of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey©
Aerial photograph of Condover Hall: courtesy of JCA Adventure©
He was also in favour with the most powerful men of the period, so that Lord Burghley employed him as his conveyancer and Elizabeth made him a Justice of the Common Pleas in 1594. Four years later, as honours and still higher professional prizes were coming to him, he died in the prime of his manhood, and his memory was preserved in Westminster Abbey, where he lies in effigy on a table tomb in the south side of the choir. His reclining effigy in judicial robes rests on his elbow.
The Elizabethan mansion remained in the Owen family for many centuries. In 1804 Nicholas Smythe Owen died and the estate and the mansion were left to Edward Pemberton, Nicholas Owen’s cousin who took the name Owen. When he died in 1863 the estate passed to his cousin Thomas Cholmondeley, but Thomas had little time to enjoy his inheritance as he died on his honeymoon and the estate passed to his younger brother Reginald Cholmondeley. Reginald was a colourful character who entertained many important people of his day including the Pre-Raphaelite painter Millais. He invited Mark Twain to stay on two occasions and when Reginald went on his numerous travels around the globe let the house to Clive of India amongst others.
After Reginald Cholmondeley’s death in 1896 the Estate and mansion were sold to a Mr E. B. Fielding a wealthy cotton merchant from Todmorden in Lancashire. The estate was sold again in 1927 to Mr Cohen, who was one of the directors of the Lewis Department Store chain.
During the Second World War the house was taken over by the War Office and became the Officers Mess for the nearby RAF Condover.
In 1946 the house was sold to the RNIB and for the next 60 years became a renowned College for the Blind and for people with other handicaps. Two of the new teaching blocks were opened by the Duke of Westminster and by Her Royal Highness, Diana Princess of Wales in 1984. Princess Margaret had also visited the school in the 1970s.
Today the mansion is owned by JCA Adventure Group, which is part of the Thomson Travel group and provides adventure breaks for schools from the United Kingdom as well as for parties from countries in Europe.
This is a fascinating and very readable account of a great English house, which has survived war, intrigue and the fate of many country houses either abandonment and ruin or demolition.
