A short history of Shrewsbury House

Shrewsbury House was built in 1923, replacing a house of the same name situated further up the hill to the north-east. The earlier Shrewsbury House had been built in 1789 for the Earl of Shrewsbury, a descendant of Bess of Hardwick.

In 1799 the house and grounds came into the ownership of the Prince Regent, later George IV, and his daughter Princess Charlotte stayed there in that year. Subsequently the house went through a series of private ownerships.

Shrewsbury House is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

  • Architectural interest: a handsome and substantial early C20 country house with varied and well-articulated external elevations and interiors in a Jacobean, early C18 and Adam style.
  • Materials: constructed of good quality brick and stone.
  • Craftsmanship: fine plastered ceilings, good quality joinery including staircase, panelling, doors and wooden or marble fireplaces. Two bathrooms retain decorative ceramic tiles.
  • Intactness: an unaltered exterior and the interior is intact except for one plastered ceiling.
  • Subsidiary features: the attached pergola, terrace walling, gazebo and boundary walls with cast iron gates and railings survive intact and contribute to the building’s interest;
  • Historical interest.

 This house is a link to the demolished C18 house of the same name and associated with the Prince Regent and Princess Charlotte and also had a significant local wartime and cold war role as a civil defence control centre.

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