Petton Hall

Although the Petton estate incorporates medieval features, most information is known about the 19th-century phase of the park. The estate was sold to the Sparling family in 1794. By the early-19th century the Hall had an extensive park extending principally to its north, and to a lesser extent, its south. The boundaries seem to have changed little between then and 1880, although at the earlier date there was also a small, triangular tongue of land running past Petton church. In 1851, Petton's kitchen gardens and vineries were said to be highly productive, and the park was said to be richly wooded; the 1889 Ordnance Survey map suggests many of those trees were in relict field boundaries.

The house was rebuilt in 1892 as a large neo-Elizabethan brick mansion, placed close to the site of its immediate predecessor, as well as a medieval moat and castle mound, fishponds, an ice-house, and Petton church (1727 and later). By the late-19th century the park had two lodges, both on the Ellesmere-to-Shrewsbury road.

The grounds of the estate are implicated in discussions surrounding the late-18th-century divorce of Edward and Hannah Corbet, when the former was reportedly observed going into the summerhouse with his under-dairymaid. This snippet provides interesting information regarding ideas of privacy and social space in the 18th-century estate.

Type

Park

Principal Building

Domestic / Residential

Survival

Part: standing remains

Open to the public

Yes

Civil Parish

Petton