Shobdon Court was an 18th-century

English country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

in the village of

Shobdon Shobdon is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England, about 15 miles north of Hereford, six miles west of Leominster, and 2 miles southwest of the Mortimer's Cross. According to the 2001 census, the parish population was 769, consisti ...

, near Leominster, Herefordshire. Although the main house has since been demolished, the service wing and the stable block have been converted to residential use. Shobdon Court (geograph 3939708)

Shobdon Court was rectangular in plan and sat in parkland on the side of a hill. Built in brick it was similar in appearance to Clarendon House in London. It was substantially remodelled in the mid 1800s.

History

The Shobdon estate was bought in 1705 by Sir James Bateman,

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional pow ...

and

Governor of the Bank of England The governor of the Bank of England is the most senior position in the Bank of England. It is nominally a civil service post, but the appointment tends to be from within the bank, with the incumbent grooming their successor. The governor of the B ...

, who replaced the Jacobean house with a new Palladian style building. On his death in 1718 it passed to his son

William Bateman, 1st Viscount Bateman William Bateman, 1st Viscount Bateman KB, FRS (1695 – December 1744), of Shobdon Court, Herefordshire was a British Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1721 and 1734. Bateman was the son of Sir James Bateman, of Shobd ...

and was inherited in turn by the latter's son,

John Bateman, 2nd Viscount Bateman John Bateman, 2nd Viscount Bateman (April 1721 – 2 March 1802) was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1746 to 1784. Bateman was the eldest son of William Bateman, 1st Viscount Bateman MP and his wife Lady Anne Spencer, d ...

, who put it in the care of his brother Richard. When John died in 1802 the Viscountcy became extinct and Shobdon Court passed to a relative,

William Hanbury William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conqu ...

, who was ennobled as Baron Bateman in 1837 after having changed his name to Bateman-Hanbury. The estate was passed down through the Bateman-Hanbury family until the 3rd Lord Bateman died in 1931. On his death the Baronetage also became extinct and estate was sold. The Shobdon Court house was demolished in 1933 but the service and stable blocks converted to apartments. Both the service block and the stable block are now

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

World War II

During the Second World War the remaining court buildings we requisitioned and formed the officers quarters for the then RAF Shobdon. One of the legacies of this was the construction of an on site squash court which still exists today.

Church and arches

The estate's church, St John's, was completely rebuilt between 1749-1752 for

, in a

Rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

style.

Simon Jenkins Sir Simon David Jenkins (born 10 June 1943) is a British author, a newspaper columnist and editor. He was editor of the ''Evening Standard'' from 1976 to 1978 and of ''The Times'' from 1990 to 1992. Jenkins chaired the National Trust from 20 ...

, in his book ''England's Thousand Best Churches'', considers the interior "a complete masterpiece (of) English

." It is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ire ...

. Arches from the interior of the church were removed in the 18th century to form an eye-catcher in the grounds of the Court.

References

{{coord, 52.2598, -2.8788, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Country houses in Herefordshire Grade II listed buildings in Herefordshire