The Chetwynd Park estate lies in the small village of Chetwynd on the outskirts of the town of

Newport, Shropshire Newport is a market town and Civil parishes in Shropshire, civil parish in the borough of Telford and Wrekin in Shropshire, England. It lies north-east of Telford, west of Stafford, and is near the Shropshire-Staffordshire border. The 2001 Ce ...

, England. The estate is positioned in a gap north of Newport, where the road having crossed the marshland, clings to a steep slope of the Scaur above the meadowlands of the

River Meese The River Meese is a river located in Shropshire, England. It is a tributary of the River Tern, which in turn is a tributary of the River Severn. The river is only known as the Meese below Aqualate Mere, but its source lies considerably high ...

, where it meets Lonco Brook, before widening out onto the north

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

plain. The estate can trace its long history back to the

Domesday Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

records, which record a mill and two fisheries. Chetwynd was an important manor in

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

times and was held by

Leofric, Earl of Mercia Leofric (died 31 August or 30 September 1057) was an Earl of Mercia. He founded monasteries at Coventry and Much Wenlock and was a very powerful earl under King Cnut and his successors. Leofric was the husband of Lady Godiva. Life Leofric was ...

, about 1050 though the current building was built in 1964 after the demolition of the older building. In 1318 Sir John de Chetwynd was granted the right to hold a market and three-day fair on

All Souls Day All Souls' Day, also called The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, is a day of prayer and remembrance for the faithful departed, observed by Christians on 2 November. In Western Christianity, including Roman Catholicism and certain p ...

. (2 November). From the 15th to the later 18th century Chetwynd was held by the Pigotts, one of whom (Elizabeth Pigott, daughter of Thomas Pigott) married Peter Corbett the great nephew of Sir Rowland Hill, publisher of the

Geneva Bible The Geneva Bible, sometimes known by the sobriquet Breeches Bible, is one of the most historically significant translations of the Bible into English, preceding the Douay Rheims Bible by 22 years, and the King James Version by 51 years. It was ...

. Charles I is recorded as staying at the estate during the English Civil War, in 1645. Newport town has a

ghost In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...

story a member of the Pigott family, namely Madam Pigott. The last of them,

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...

High Sheriff of Shropshire This is a list of sheriffs and high sheriffs of Shropshire The high sheriff, sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the high sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of t ...

in 1774, sold the estate and moved to

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

, later dying at

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in 1794. The estate was then purchased by Thomas Borrow, member of a Derbyshire iron-founding family, who subsequently changed his name to Borough. Thomas, who moved to Chetwynd in 1803, was succeeded by his son John Charles Burton Borough,

in 1844. In the 1860s there was a major building campaign carried out by J.C.B. Borough. Chetwynd Hall was reworked as Chetwynd Park, and at the same time the church and rectory which stood in the grounds (the church just beside the hall) were demolished and replaced by new structures 250 metres to the southwest. Terraced lawns were laid out on the site of the old church, new gardens were designed, and the park was enlarged. As the estate declined in the 20th century, Chetwynd Hall was demolished and replaced by a modern house in the 1960s. Next to the Hall lies the Church and a school house both built to replace earlier ones, respectively in 1865 and 1924. The school itself was moved from next to the hall to next to the gate house, to respect the privacy of the owners, and it covered Chetwynd and Sambrook from 1857 until 1959 when it became the village hall The grounds of the hall have been cut down over the years with a quarter going to become Newport original show ground. Following the purchase of the Deer Park by Newport and District Agricultural Society, the old show ground was leased to

Newport (Salop) Rugby Union Football Club Newport RUFC is an England, English Rugby union, rugby team based at the Old Showground, just outside the town of Newport, Shropshire, Newport, Shropshire. They currently play in the fifth tier league of the English rugby union system, Regional ...

, with another two quarters became the modern show ground at Chetwynd park or Deer park which is sited on the banks of Chetwynd Pool, which is a pool. The Deer Park got its name from the herd of some 100 fallow deer which were brought up from

Southern England Southern England, also known as the South of England or the South, is a sub-national part of England. Officially, it is made up of the southern, south-western and part of the eastern parts of England, consisting of the statistical regions of ...

, and is set up much like a

Medieval deer park In medieval and Early Modern England, Wales and Ireland, a deer park () was an enclosed area containing deer. It was bounded by a ditch and bank with a wooden park pale on top of the bank, or by a stone or brick wall. The ditch was on the ins ...

. Following the death of the life tenant, Mrs M Borough, in 1987, the Estate was left to the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

and

Charterhouse School Charterhouse is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Godalming, Surrey, England. Founded by Thomas Sutton in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian monastery in Charter ...

and in 1988, the whole of the estate was sold, with the Deer Park being bought by Newport & District Agricultural Society, who run the

Newport Show Newport Show is held at Chetwynd Deer Park at Chetwynd, Shropshire, England, between Newport, Shropshire, Newport and Edgmond. History On 24 August 1889, a circular was sent out by Mr W H Burton, Chairman of Furber and Burton Auctioneers (late ...

. The society set about the task of restoring the Park to its former glory and at the same time, creating what is acknowledged to be one of the most beautiful show grounds in the country. In addition, the society has developed the educational potential of the deer park by building a classroom facility known as The Lodge in 2013 and as a result, many local schools and community groups as well as

Harper Adams University Harper Adams University, founded in 1901 as Harper Adams College, is a public university located close to the village of Edgmond, near Newport, Shropshire, Newport, in Shropshire, England. Established in 1901, the college is a specialist provi ...

visit the deer park for educational purposes.

References

External links

Church website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chetwynd Park Estate Buildings and structures in Newport, Shropshire Country houses in Shropshire Grade II listed buildings in Shropshire Geography of Newport, Shropshire Newport, Shropshire Telford and Wrekin Chetwynd

See also

References

External links