Shugborough Hall is a
stately home
300px, Oxfordshire.html" ;"title="Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire">Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire
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 To ...
near
Great Haywood,
Staffordshire
Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...
, England.
The hall is situated on the edge of
Cannock Chase, about east of
Stafford
Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, England. It is located about south of Stoke-on-Trent, north of Wolverhampton, and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 71,673 at the 2021–2022 United Kingd ...
and from
Rugeley. The estate was owned by the
Bishops of Lichfield until the
dissolution of the monasteries, upon which it passed through several hands before being purchased in 1624 by William Anson, a local lawyer and ancestor of the
Earls of Lichfield. The estate remained in the
Anson family for three centuries. Following the death of the 4th Earl of Lichfield in 1960, the estate was allocated to the
National Trust
The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...
in lieu of
death duties, and then immediately leased to
Staffordshire County Council. Management of the estate was returned to the National Trust in 2016.
It is open to the public and comprises the hall, museum, kitchen garden and a model farm.
History
up280px, Admiral George Anson, 1st Baron Anson
The Shugborough estate was owned by the Bishops of Lichfield until the
dissolution of the monasteries around 1540, and thereafter passed through several hands, until it was purchased in 1624 by William Anson (c.1580–1644), a lawyer, of
Dunston, Staffordshire for £1,000.
[Jackson-Stops, p. 7] In 1693, William Anson's grandson, also called William (1656–1720), demolished the existing manor house and constructed a three-story building which still forms the central part of the hall.
[''A Brief History of Shugborough'']
William's elder son,
Thomas Anson MP (1695-1773), further extended the house in the 1740s, adding two pavilions flanking either side of the central block. These changes were funded by Thomas's younger brother, Admiral
George Anson, created Lord Anson in 1747 and
First Lord of the Admiralty in 1751. He had amassed a great fortune during his naval career, and when he died without issue he left the majority to his elder brother.
Thomas also died childless and the estate passed to his sister's son, George Adams, who adopted the surname Anson by royal licence.
In 1806, George's son Thomas (1767–1818) was created 1st Viscount Anson, and his son, the
2nd viscount, was created 1st Earl of Lichfield in the
1831 Coronation Honours. The Earl led an extravagant lifestyle and amassed several large debts, which, in 1842, forced him to sell the entire contents of the house in a two-week-long sale. While
Thomas George Anson, 2nd Earl of Lichfield did much to restore the house and contents to its former glory, by the time his son inherited the estate it was heavily
mortgage
A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law (legal system), civil law jurisdictions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners t ...
d.
In 1831, Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent, the future
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...
, then 13, visited Shugborough with her mother, the
Duchess of Kent, as part of an extensive tour of the country. The young princess stayed with many local landowners at the time, including
John Talbot, 16th Earl of Shrewsbury.
[McGilchrist, p. 48]

Passing from east to west through the southern part of the park is the
Trent Valley Line, planned in 1845. The railway runs underground in the
Shugborough Tunnel and therefore has minimal visual impact. The tunnel entrances, which are
listed grade II, are highly decorated, in particular the western approach which dates from 1847. The drive to the hall is carried over the tunnel by a bridge, about north-west of the Lichfield Lodge, which also dates from 1847 and also listed at grade II. The double-track line is part of the
West Coast Main Line
The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...
, running north-west between
Colwich Junction and
Stafford
Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, England. It is located about south of Stoke-on-Trent, north of Wolverhampton, and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 71,673 at the 2021–2022 United Kingd ...
.
Late 20th century and today
Following the death of the 4th Earl in 1960, an agreement was reached whereby the estate would pass to the
National Trust
The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...
in lieu of death duties. The deal was finalised and the house opened to the public in 1966. The estate was immediately leased to Staffordshire County Council, who managed and maintained it on behalf of the National Trust, with
Patrick Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield retaining an apartment in the hall until his death in 2005, paying a nominal rent to the new owners.
His successor, the 6th Earl, decided to relinquish the lease of the apartments, thus severing the family's direct links with the estate.
In 2016 Staffordshire County Council handed the estate back to the National Trust, with 49 years remaining on its lease. The move is expect to save the council £35 million, with the Trust intending to renew investment in the property.
The grounds and mansion house are open to the public. The attraction is marketed as "The Complete Working Historic Estate", which includes a working model farm museum dating from 1805 complete with a working
watermill
A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as mill (grinding), milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in ...
,
kitchens, a
dairy
A dairy is a place where milk is stored and where butter, cheese, and other dairy products are made, or a place where those products are sold. It may be a room, a building, or a larger establishment. In the United States, the word may also des ...
, a tea room, and rare breeds of farm animals. Originally restored in 1990, the estate's brewery is England's only log-fired brewery that still produces beer commercially. Previously used only on special occasions, the brewhouse has been a working exhibit since 2007, operated by
Titanic Brewery.
Since 2011 the private apartments have housed an exhibition of the work of
Patrick Lichfield. His cameras and lighting gear have been set up in a recreation of his studio, and there is a gallery of some of his most famous photographic subjects.
Architecture
Interior
The state rooms
The
state rooms at Shugborough Hall include The State Dining Room, The Red Drawing Room, The Library, The Saloon, The Verandah Room, The Anson Room and The State Bedroom. These contain some of the most opulent and highly decorated interiors in the hall.
[''The Mansion House'']
The Verandah Room contains a 208-piece
porcelain
Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to oth ...
dinner service commissioned to commemorate Admiral Anson's circumnavigation of the globe in
HMS ''Centurion''. The dinner service was offered to Admiral Anson in gratitude for assisting in fighting the huge fires that were destroying the merchant district in Canton. (Story narrated by Shugborough guide October 2015). The State Bedroom overlooks the terrace and was occupied by Queen Victoria during her childhood visit.
File:Shugborough interior 1 (4824600016).jpg, The State Dining Room
File:Shugborough interior 2 (4824607792).jpg, The Red Drawing Room
File:Shugborough Hall library.JPG, The Library
Private apartments
The private apartments were the living quarters of 5th Earl and his family until 2010. The Boudoir, with its silver gilt wallpaper
Wallpaper is used in interior decoration to cover the interior walls of domestic and public buildings. It is usually sold in rolls and is applied onto a wall using wallpaper paste. Wallpapers can come plain as "lining paper" to help cover uneve ...
, is the only room in the hall with hand-painted ceilings with gold detailing. Other rooms include The Lilac and Yellow
Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In t ...
Bedrooms, The Sitting Room and the completely circular Breakfast Room.[''Shugborough Revisited'']
File:Shugborough interior ceiling 2 (4824614020).jpg, The hand-painted ceiling of The Boudoir
File:Shugborough guests' bathroom.JPG, Guests' bathroom
File:Shugborough green sitting room.JPG, Green sitting room, detail
File:Shugborough bedroom.JPG, Bedroom
Exterior
In about 1693, William Anson (1656–1720) demolished the old house and created a new mansion. The entrance front, then facing to the west, comprised a balustraded, three-storey, seven-bayed central block. In about 1748 his great-grandson Thomas Anson (1767–1818) commissioned architect Thomas Wright to remodel the house, which was extended with flanking two-storey, three-bayed pavilions linked to the central block by pedimented passages.
At the turn of the 19th century, the house was further altered and extended by architect Samuel Wyatt. The pavilions and passages were incorporated into the main building, and a new porticoed entrance front with ten Ionic pillars was created at the east. These pillars resemble carved stone but are hollow timber structures. This was done for Thomas Anson, 1st Viscount Anson and his wife Anne Margaret Coke, daughter of Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester, whom he married in 1794. The hall, as it is seen today, is built in a neo-classical style and encased in slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...
, sanded to resemble stone.
File:Shugborough Hall Jones' Views 1829.jpg, Shugborough Hall in the 1820s
File:Shugborough Hall - geograph.org.uk - 1350373.jpg, The 18th century Ionic portico
File:Shugborough rear 1.JPG, The rear façade of the hall
File:Shugborough garden view.JPG, The garden from the house
File:Stable block, Shugborough Hall - geograph.org.uk - 1350369.jpg, The stable block in 2009
File:Shugborough Hall 01.jpg, The hall seen from a hot air balloon
A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket (in some long-distance or high-altitude balloons, a capsule), which carri ...
File:River Sow at Shugborough Hall,.JPG, River Sow at the rear of the Hall
File:Shugborough Hall farmhouse.JPG, The farmhouse
The park and follies
Like many landowners of his time, Thomas Anson (1695–1773) took a keen interest in the landscaping of his parkland. The land around Shugborough was largely flat, which ensured that trees, follies and water would play an important role in shaping the landscape.[Black, p. 68] The grounds contain a number of follies, many of which, such as The Chinese House and two Chinese-style bridges, have a Chinese theme, in honour of Admiral George Anson. Admiral Anson, who had visited Canton, left a considerable sum of money to his brother Thomas Anson when he died, which was used to develop the hall and estate. The Chinese House and the red iron footbridge are both grade I listed.
In 1760, Classical architect James Stuart was employed to design a number of monuments. Stuart had visited Athens in the early 1750s, and Ancient Greek influences are obvious at Shugborough. Stuart designed for Anson a copy of the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates
The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates near the Acropolis of Athens was erected by the ''Choregos (ancient Greece), choregos'' Lysicrates, a wealthy patron of musical performances in the Theater of Dionysus, to commemorate the prize in the dithyram ...
and a grade I listed triumphal arch based on the Arch of Hadrian in Athens
Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...
.[Black, p. 69]
The Shepherd's Monument
The Shepherd's Monument is a stone and marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...
folly within the grounds of Shugborough hall, engraved with the inscriptions ''"O.U.O.S.V.A.V.V"'' and ''"D.M."''. The monument has been internationally well-known since 1982, when the book '' The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail'' drew attention to the mysterious Shugborough inscription. Carved by Peter Scheemakers, theories have abounded, including some which suggest it may indicate the whereabouts of the Holy Grail
The Holy Grail (, , , ) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miraculous healing powers, sometimes providing eternal youth or sustenanc ...
.[Belfield, p. 112]
file:Red Bridge and the Chinese House, Shugborough (geograph 3081592).jpg, The Chinese House
file:Doric Temple, Shugborough Hall.jpg, The Doric Temple
file:Shugborough shepherds monument.JPG, The Shepherd's Monument
file:Tower of the Winds (4824631378).jpg, The Tower of the Winds
file:Triumphal Arch at Shugborough (geograph 3625020).jpg, Arch of Hadrian
See also
* Grade I listed buildings in Staffordshire
* Listed buildings in Colwich, Staffordshire
References and sources
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
{{commons category, Shugborough Hall
Shugborough Estate
- official site
* List of paintings on show
Agricultural museums in England
Anson family
Country houses in Staffordshire
Farm museums in England
Grade I listed parks and gardens in Staffordshire
Grade I listed houses in Staffordshire
Historic house museums in Staffordshire
Living museums in England
National Trust properties in Staffordshire
Open-air museums in England
Borough of Stafford
Cannock Chase