Gateway and adjoining walls at Condover Hall

Summary

An imposing 19th century gateway marking the main entrance to Condover Hall, an Elizabethan manor house, from which its design is derived.

Reasons for Designation

The gateway and adjoining walls are listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as an imposing and striking introduction to the formal main entrance to Condover Hall, with which it is carefully aligned and stylistically complementary;
* as a skilfully composed design in an Elizabethan style, well-built in pink sandstone ashlar, incorporating motifs drawn from the architecture of the hall and heraldic devices of the Owens;
* as a probable design by George Devey, representing the architect’s ability to work convincingly in historic styles.

Historic interest:

* as part of the C19 development of the Condover estate, probably part of the extensive scheme of works commissioned by Reginald Cholmondeley.

Group value:

* for the strong visual relationship with the Grade I-listed Condover Hall, from which its design is derived and positioning determined;
* probably by Devey, and an element of a group of landscape features designed by the architect in around 1870.

History

The manor of Condover was acquired in 1586 by Thomas Owen, the eldest son of a Shrewsbury merchant. He immediately began to rebuild the Hall (listed at Grade I) as an E-plan mansion with a forecourt, and in due course laid out gardens around it looking out into a new deer park. The estate passed through a series of heirs, and then to Thomas Cholmondeley, who assumed the name Owen, in 1863. Following his death a year later, it passed to his younger brother, Reginald, who commissioned work to the garden from George Devey. Reginald was succeeded in 1896 by Revd Richard Cholmondeley, and the estate was sold to E B Fielden. After passing through various hands the Hall and most of the park was bought in 1946 by the Royal National Institute for the Blind, in whose ownership it remained until 2005. It was subsequently used as school for special educational needs, and then as a children’s activity holiday centre.

The gateway at the entrance was listed at Grade I in 1986 in the belief it was coeval with the Hall. Research has shown that, in fact, a gateway was not built until the early C19, as one of a series of changes to the layout of the eastern forecourt by Edward William Smythe Owen after the estate passed to him in 1804. The road had been moved slightly east, further away from the hall, and a statue of Hercules was removed from the forecourt (subsequently relocated to Shrewsbury's Quarry Park; listed at Grade II). A gateway is likely to have been erected as this phase of works, and was purported to have been in place by 1820, when depicted in a watercolour of the owner approaching the house. However, the style of the present gateway suggests it was rebuilt to the designs of George Devey in the 1860s, contemporary with his works in the garden for Reginald Cholmondeley.

Details

19th century gateway to Condover Hall and walls to north and south.

MATERIALS: gateway of pink sandstone ashlar with iron gates. Walls of roughly coursed sandstone rubble.

PLAN: the gateway stands about 130m east of Condover Hall at the end of an axial driveway in line with the central porch. Walls extend 20m to the north and 200m to the south.

DESCRIPTION: an arched gateway with flanking walls and piers. Square panelled piers support a moulded Renaissance arch with a scrolled keystone, above which is a cornice with scroll consoles. A stepped gable has scroll mouldings and angle obelisks, as found on the Hall, and is topped by a small pediment. It has the Owen coat of arms, with a lion rampant, in the centre. Short flanking walls have brackets to the gateway, and terminate in a square pier on either side with stepped caps and lions, one with a double-headed eagle, the other a scroll. Gates, C19, are wrought iron with fleur-de-lys finials.

Rubble walls to the north and south, around 2.5m high and with dressed coping stones.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

259384

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Avray Tipping, H, Country Homes Gardens Old & New: Condover Hall – II. Shropshire, the seat of Mr Edward Brocklehurst Fielden in Country Life, Vol. 43, 1118, (8 June 1918), 530-536

Websites
A survey and valuation of estates the property of Nicholas Smyth esqr. and his lady, 1767. Yale Centre for British Art., accessed 24/03/2025 from https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/orbis:12793323

Other
Tenneson, Sara, ‘The revival of the formal garden in the late nineteenth century and the contribution of architects George Devey (1820-1886) and Sir Reginald Blomfield (1856-1942)’. Unpublished PhD thesis 2022, Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London

End of official list entry

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