Pitchford - Pitchford Estate

Pitchford Estate

Pitchford Hall is Grade I listed building and the estate is first referred to in historical records in the Domesday Book (1081–86) as follows: “Edric, and Leofric and Wulfric held it as thress manors; they were free. 3 hides which pay tax. Land for 5 ploughs. In lordship 3; 3 slaves; 3 ploughmen; 1 village; 3 smallholders, a smith and rider with 2 ploughs. Woodland for fattening 100 pigs. Value before 1066, 8s later 16s; now 40s.” Records suggest a medieval manor house existed somewhere on the site from at least 1284 to 1431.

The 40-room mansion mansion as it exists today however is said to have been built between 1560 and 1570 for Adam Ottley, a wool merchant from Shrewsbury. The half-timbered mansion stands next to the Church of St Michael and All Angels, and is widely considered to be one of the finest Tudor houses in Britain. The Pitchford estate would remain in the Ottley family until the death of Adam Ottley in 1807, when it passed to Hon. Charles C. C. Jenkinson, second son of the 1st Earl of Liverpool and later to his son-in-law James Cotes.

Princess Victoria - better known as the queen of the same name - visited the hall in 1832, and wrote in her diary the hall was "A curious looking but very comfortable house. It is striped black and white, and in the shape of a cottage". George VI (The Duke of York at the time) and Queen Elizabeth (The Queen Mother) also stayed in the hall during 1935. In 1940, during the Second World War, Pitchford Hall was also one of the three houses selected for the King and Queen as a safe refuge. The hall, unlike some similar properties in Britain has remained in private ownership for many generations. The hall was sold in 1993 however, ending a 500- year family link to the estate. The Pitchford Hall and estate are now separately owned.