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Condover Hall is an elegant Grade I listed three-storey Elizabethan sandstone building, described as the grandest manor house in Shropshire, standing in a conservation area on the outskirts of Condover village, Shropshire, England, four miles south of the county town of Shrewsbury.

A Royal manor in Anglo Saxon times, until the 16th century Condover Manor was in and out of Crown Tenure. In 1586 it was purchased by Thomas Owen, a Member of Parliament for and Recorder of Shrewsbury, from the family of the previous owner, Henry Vynar, a London merchant who had died in 1585. Owen had had a lease of the manor from 1578, and been in lawsuit with the family.

For over sixty years from 1946 the Hall was run as a residential school, initially for blind children when owned by the RNIB and latterly under private ownership as a school for autistic children, covering boy boarders and coeducational day pupils. The school and college both closed during 2009.

Owen died in 1598 before the new Hall was completed and its designer remains a matter of debate. Building accounts record that a John Richmond of Acton Reynald was the original master mason, but by 1591 Walter Hancock had taken over the position. Lawrence Shipway, the builder of the second (not current) Shire Hall at Stafford, also appears to have had some major contribution to the building design. The most compelling evidence can be found in drawings in the Sir John Soane's Museum that seems to prove that the Hall was designed by the influential Elizabethan architect John Thorpe in the early 1590s.

Built out of pink sandstone, quarried at nearby Berriewood, Condover Hall has typical Elizabethan two-storey ground-floor rooms lit by tall windows with regular mullions and double transoms. There are fine chimneys, gables and a good example of a strapwork frieze. The grounds are laid out in formal 17th-century style with boxed yew hedges and sandstone balustraded terraces decorated with Italianate terracotta vases. Near the Cound Brook is an amusing flagstaff held by a sandstone gnome.

Owned by the Owen family until 1863, the house then passed to the Cholmondeley family, and novelist Mary Cholmondeley (1859–1925) lived in the hall for a few months in 1896 before moving to London. Her uncle, Reginald Cholmondeley (1826–1896), owned the house when it was visited by the American writer Mark Twain (1835–1910) in 1873 and 1879. The house and estate was sold by the family in 1897 to Edward Brocklehurst Fielden, who later sold it in 1926.

According to a local legend – noted to be "utterly at variance with facts", not least in being unsupported by the history of ownership of the house, which indicates it was granted by King Henry VIII to a Sir Henry Knyvett who lived there only briefly before selling it on – no heir to Condover Hall will prosper since the hall was cursed from the gallows by a butler falsely accused of murder; he had been condemned by the lies of the son of Knyvett, lord of the manor, who stabbed his father to death. Knyvett's bloody handprint on a wall allegedly defied all attempts to wash it away.

In 1930 a Great Western Railway Hall Class 4900 steam locomotive, No. 4915 with a 4-6-0 configuration, was named Condover Hall, remaining in regular service until 1965. In the 1980s Hornby toys issued an electric toy replica of the engine. The train used in the Harry Potter films as the Hogwarts Express is an identical Hall class locomotive. On 21 August 1994, Rail Express Systems liveried Class 47/7, No. 47784 was named Condover Hall at the Crewe Basford Hall Yard open day.

Between August 1942 and June 1945 the hall was commandeered by the War Office and pressed into service as the officers' mess for nearby RAF Condover.

In 1946 the Hall was purchased from its then owner, William Abbey, by RNIB and operated as Condover Hall School for the Blind, a residential facility for children aged between 5 and 18. RNIB built a covered heated swimming pool for use by the pupils. The hall was sold in 2005 to the Priory Group, who opened a residential school for autistic children and a college for young people with Asperger syndrome. The facility opened in 2006, but in 2008 the closure of both sites was announced. Condover Horizon school closed in January 2009, and Farleigh College Condover closed on 23 July 2009.

In 2011 JCA Adventure bought the house, and it now hosts children's residential adventure holidays. The Hall has undergone a multimillion-pound refurbishment programme to turn it into a well-equipped residential activity centre. Activities provided range from archery, abseiling to a laser maze and dance studio. The Hall intends to encourage physical activities and deliver cross-curricular learning opportunities. There is a Harry Potter themed spell room for younger children. Sports teams and events are hosted using the all-weather sports pitches, indoor sports hall and swimming pool, and the centre provides specific Netball coaching and match weekends. The centre can provide accommodation for 500 residents. With an occupancy of up to 500 people, the accommodation is in newly refurbished buildings throughout the estate grounds.

Reginald Cholmondeley JP DL (20 April 1826 – 10 February 1896) of Condover, Shropshire, was an English landowner, artist and collector. He was a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant of Shropshire and held the rank of Major, 1st Batt. 28th Salop Royal Volunteers. The Condover estate passed to him on the death of his brother, Thomas, in 1864.

Cholmondeley was born on 20 April 1826 at Hodnet, the third son of Charles Cowper Cholmondeley (1795–1831) of Chester, rector of Hodnet, Shropshire and Mary Heber (d. 1846). His eldest brother, Thomas, was a Major of the first Administrative Battalion of the Shropshire Rifle Volunteers; another brother, Charles, was a Catholic priest; his youngest brother was the Reverend Richard Hugh, the rector at Hodnet, whose daughter was the novelist Mary Cholmondeley.

He attended Trinity College, Cambridge where he matriculated in 1845, obtaining a B.A. in 1849, M.A. in 1856 and was admitted at the Inner Temple on 18 January 1850, but not called. He trained as a painter and sculptor in the 1850s.

In March 1863, following the death of his cousin, Edward William Smythe Owen (1793–1863), Thomas Cholmondeley (1823–1864) inherited Condover Hall and the large estate adjacent, and took the name of Owen as a condition of the inheritance. A year later he married Victoria Alexandrina Cotes, daughter of John Cotes and Lady Louisa Jenkinson, daughter of Charles Jenkinson, later 3rd Earl of Liverpool and a godchild of Queen Victoria. He travelled to Italy for his wedding tour and in Florence he was "seized with a malignant fever" on 10 April and died there on 20 April 1864. His brother, Reginald, who had met him in Florence, carried back his remains to England, and he is buried in Condover churchyard.

In the parish church at Condover there is a marble monument to Thomas Cholmondeley by George Frederic Watts (1817–1904), featuring a kneeling bearded figure of the deceased, wearing boots, a cloak and a soldier's tunic, with his hands clasping a sword, looking out across the choir stalls in front of him, into the chancel.

The Condover estate devised to Reginald on the death of his brother, Thomas, in March 1864. His country seat, Condover Hall, is generally regarded as "the finest stone manor-house in Shropshire." He also owned a house in London. Originally in single occupation as No. 37 Palace Gate, this large red-brick house at the corner with Canning Place was built in about 1869–70 for Reginald Cholmondeley, to whom Cubitts granted a ninety-nine-year lease from September 1870, at £100 per annum. The architect was Frederick Pepys Cockerell, who also worked for Cholmondeley on the restoration of his country seat, Condover Hall, Shropshire. As well as being a considerable landowner, Cholmondeley was an enthusiastic amateur sculptor of some accomplishment. Many of the elaborate sculptural decorations at Condover Hall are his work.

On 17 October 1867 at Rostherne, Cholmondeley married Alice Mary Egerton (1836–27 November 1868), daughter of William Egerton, 1st Baron Egerton of Tatton and Charlotte Elizabeth Loftus, daughter of John Loftus, 2nd Marquess of Ely. His younger brother, the Reverend Richard Hugh Cholmondeley, officiated at the ceremony.

His new wife was an artist and a poet and the couple were well-suited but the marriage would be short-lived. Alice died in childbirth on 27 November and was buried on 3 December 1868; her infant daughter, Alice, died three weeks after her mother, on 11 December and was buried on 19 December in the parish church at Condover.

In the Church of St Mary and St Andrew, Condover, there is a very affecting monument to Alice Cholmondeley that was sculpted by her husband of one year. It features a recumbent effigy of Alice, with her infant daughter by her side and an empty cradle at her feet.

Cholmondeley also sculpted the recumbent effigy of his cousin, Blanche Heber (d. 1870), at St Luke's Church, Hodnet.

In 1871 he published Poems by A.C., a volume of poems by his late wife and dedicated to Robert Browning, and in 1875, Emblems, a volume of her drawings. A presentation copy of the latter was given to the banker, George Rae.

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  Monument to Alice Cholmondeley by Reginald Cholmondeley, Church of St Mary and St Andrew, Condover

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  Monument to Alice Cholmondeley (detail)

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  Monument to Alice Cholmondeley (detail)

Cholmondeley was "a man of powerful personality and fine taste", an accomplished artist and talented amateur sculptor as well as an enthusiastic collector of books, manuscripts, paintings and curiosities. He had exhibited at the Royal Academy and counted many of London's artists such as G.F. Watts and John Everett Millais (1829–1896) as personal friends.

His circle of friends also included the poet and playwright, Robert Browning (1812–1889), poet, biographer and translator, Sir Theodore Martin (1816–1909), whose portrait he painted, and Lady Martin as well as the American writer, Mark Twain (1835–1910) and his wife, who visited Condover in 1873 and 1879.

On 2 July 1881 (the day that President Garfield was shot) Olivia Clemens received from their friend Reginald Cholmondeley a letter of condolence on the death of her husband in Australia; startling enough, though in reality rather comforting than otherwise, for the reason that the "Mark Twain" who had died in Australia was a very persistent impostor.

When he wrote to Twain to apologise for the mistake the humourist graciously replied:

"Being dead I might be excused from writing letters, but I am not that kind of a corpse. May I never be so dead as to neglect the hail of a friend from a far land."

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  Condover Hall, engraving by E.I. Roberts after J.P. Neale

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  Condover Hall, south-west view

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  Condover Hall, front view

Cholmondeley owned a number of rare books as well as valuable paintings, among them Elizabethan, Old Masters and many more; armour and Birds of Paradise that he purchased from the ornithologist, John Gould.

 

The most important books in his library were:

• Nicholas Cox, The Gentleman's Recreation, 1674
• Robert William Eyton, The Antiquities of Shropshire, 1854–1860
• Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield, 1766
• Jean de la Fontaine, Contes et Nouvelles, 1762
• Longus, Les Amours Pastorales de Daphnis et Chloe, 1745
• George Stanhope, Parson's Christian Directory, 1716
• Dean Swift, Gulliver's Travels, 1726
• Voltaire, Œvres, 1735
• Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, 1791
• Las Quarto Libros de Amadis de Gaula, 1533
• Richard Hakluyt, Principal Navigations, Voyages, and Discoveries of the English Nation, 1589
• Carl Schütz; Johann Ziegler, Vues de la Ville de Vienne et de Vues en Tyrol, Styrie, 1785
• An imperfect copy of the first folio Shakespeare, 1623
• David Wilkins, Concilia Magnæ Britanniæ et Hiberniæ, 1737
• Documents letters and papers written by the lawyer and antiquary, John Smith of North Nibley, Gloucestershire, steward of Henry Berkeley, 7th Baron Berkeley (1534–1613) and MP for Midhurst, Sussex in 1621. There is a well-filled volume of notes made by Smith when he sat in Parliament but they do no contribute anything beyond what is already known.
  • A fine early copy (on a roll of parchment) of the poem called The Stacions of Rome, giving an account of the various churches and shrines at Rome, of the relics there, and the indulgences consequent on visits to them.
• Collections of the 18th-century, by the physician and antiquary, William Cowper (1701–1767), of Overleigh Hall, Chester, for the history and antiquities of Chester and the Isle of Man. Cowper's niece, Dorothy Cowper, married Thomas Cholmondeley (1726–1779) of Vale Royal, bringing with her the Overleigh estate. She was Reginald Cholmondeley's great-grandmother.
  • Sanctus Tewdricus sive Pastor Bonus. A Latin drama, with illuminated title page by Henry Matthew Chamberling

16th-century and 17th-century portraits of English kings, queens and courtiers, including:

• Henry VIII
• Mary I
• Elizabeth I
• Charles I
• Henrietta Maria
• Jane Seymour
• Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley: Thomas Seymour, Baron Seymour, 16th century, by unknown artist
• ?Elizabeth Seymour: Unknown woman, formerly known as Catherine Howard, late 17th-century, after Hans Holbein the Younger
• William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
• Richard Foxe, Bishop of Winchester
• Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel
• Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu
• Henry Sidney: Sir Henry Sidney, 1573, by unknown artist
• Francis Walsingham

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  Sir Henry Sidney, 1573, by unknown artist

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  Thomas Seymour, Baron Seymour, 16th century, by unknown artist

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  Unknown woman, formerly known as Catherine Howard, late 17th-century, after Hans Holbein the Younger

English School:

• Paintings by William Dobson, Thomas Lawrence, Godfrey Kneller, Philip James de Loutherbourg, George Stubbs, Anthony van Dyck,
• George Frederic Watts:
  • ?A Study with the Peacock's Feathers, c. 1862–1865
  • Paolo and Francesca, 1872 and
• Francesco Zuccarelli.

French School:

• Paintings by Juliette Peyrol Bonheur and Antoine Watteau.

Dutch School:

• Paintings by Paul Bril, Pieter Casteels, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Lucas de Heere, Jan Gossaert, Daniël Mijtens and others.

Spanish School:

• Paintings by Claudio Coello, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Juan Pantoja de la Cruz,
• Antonis Mor: Elisabeth de Valois, 1560,
• Jusepe de Ribera, Diego Velázquez, Federico Zuccaro and Francisco de Zurbarán.

Italian School:

• Paintings by Leandro Bassano, Jacopo Bellini, Boccaccio Boccaccino, Agnolo Bronzino, Canaletto,
• Antonio Maria Vassallo: The Larder, probably c. 1650–1660,

and others.

Venetian School:

• A painting by Paolo Veronese

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  ?A Study with the Peacock's Feathers, c. 1862–1865, George Frederic Watts.

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  Paolo and Francesca, 1872, George Frederic Watts.

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  Elisabeth de Valois, 1560, by Antonis Mor

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  The Larder, probably c. 1650–1660, by Antonio Maria Vassallo

By the 1890s Cholmondeley found himself in debt as a result of his extravagance. Over the years he had spent on Condover Hall, its contents and gardens, what was needed for the estate, which became "so neglected and encumbered" that he was planning to sell it when he died in 1896.

He died on 10 February 1896 at Condover Hall and was buried on 13 February in the parish church at Condover.

The Condover estate passed to his younger brother, the Reverend Richard Hugh Cholmondeley (1828–1910).

The Condover estate and the collections of books, paintings, furniture and armour were sold in 1897.

The Condover estate was purchased in 1897 by Edward Fielden, who later sold it in 1926.