Attingham Park is an English country house and estate in Shropshire. Located near the village of Atcham, on the B4380 Shrewsbury to Wellington road. It is owned by the National Trust and is a Grade I listed building.
Attingham Park was built in 1785 for Noel Hill, 1st Baron Berwick, replacing a house on the site called Tern Hall. With money he inherited, along with his title, he commissioned the architect George Steuart to design a new and grander house to be built around the original hall. The new country house encapsulated the old property entirely, and once completed it was given the new name 'Attingham Hall'.
The Estate comprises roughly , and the extensive of parkland and gardens of Attingham have a Grade II* Listed status. Over 560,000 people visited in 2022/23, placing it as the most popular National Trust property. National Trust Annual Report 2021-2022
Across the parkland there are five Grade II* listed buildings, including the stable block, the Tern Lodge toll house which can be seen on the B4380, and two bridges that span the River Tern. There are also 12 Grade II listed structures including the retaining walls of the estate, the bee house, the ice house, the walled garden, the ha-ha, which can be seen in the front of the mansion, and the Home Farm.
There are also the archeological remains of Anglo-Saxon palaces in form of two rare 25m-long timber halls dating to around 650 AD, highlighting a significant and well-resourced Anglo-Saxon community in the region.
By the mediaeval period, a village, Berwick Maviston, is recorded. This has not survived, but today the remains of a moat and fish ponds from the old manor can still be seen. The manor and the village dated back to the Norman Conquest, being mentioned in the 1086 Domesday Book. This original manor fell into disrepair in mediaeval times. It was replaced with another house known as 'Grant's Mansion' was recorded on the site in 1790. The village was occupied until the 1780s when the newly created Baron Berwick built Attingham and removed the village from his land. The title of Baron Berwick comes from the name of this village.
In 1789, the 1st Lord Berwick died, and his son, Thomas Noel Hill, 2nd Baron Berwick, succeeded him. Thomas was a collector and patron of the arts, who commissioned improvements to the house and extensions of the estate.Douglas, p.6 This included commissioning John Nash in 1805 to add the picture gallery, a project that was flawed from the beginning as it suffered from leaks. Constructed using cast iron and curved glass to give the effect of coving, it throws light into the gallery below.Douglas, p.50 In 2013 work began on building a new protective roof above the delicate Nash roof, replacing one installed in the 1970s with a new one which will stop leakage and reduce natural weather wear. The new roof has temperature control, blinds, and UV resistant glass.
The 2nd Lord Berwick reached financial ruin, and all the contents of the house were auctioned in 1827 and in 1829; some were purchased by his two brothers. He died in Italy in 1832, and his brother, William Noel-Hill, 3rd Baron Berwick inherited the estate. William was a diplomat, who was posted in Italy for 28 years; described by Lord Byron as 'the only one of the diplomatists whom I ever knew who really is Excellent’, his collection of Italian art and furniture became part of Attingham's collection upon his inheritance. This included the tableware by silversmith Paul Storr.Douglas, 8-9 William died in 1842, and his younger brother, Richard Noel-Hill, 4th Baron Berwick inherited; as the youngest son and a clergyman, he had not expected to inherit. His son, Richard Noel Noel-Hill, 5th Baron Berwick, inherited in 1848, and was a careful steward, introducing agricultural modernisations and clearing many of the estate's debts that had been accrued by his father and uncles.Douglas, 10-11 He lived at Cronkhill on the estate and whilst there invented to eponymous Cronkhill rifle.
Richard was succeeded by his brother, William Noel-Hill, 6th Baron Berwick, in 1861, who was a colonel in the army, and chose to not live at Attingham. William died in 1882 and his nephew Richard Henry Noel-Hill, 7th Baron Berwick, inherited the estate. The 7th Baron had financial problems and sold family heirlooms to pay off debts. He died in 1897.
the First World War, Attingham was owned by the 8th Lord Berwick who let the property to the Dutch-American Van Bergen family who encouraged the establishment of a hospital for wounded soldiers at Attingham. The hospital opened in October 1914 and by 1918 had 60 beds and an operating theatre. During the War, the 8th Lord Berwick served with the Shropshire Yeomanry and as a diplomat in Paris. Throughout the war years he corresponded with Teresa Hulton, daughter of the artist William Stokes Hulton, whom he married in June 1919. During the war, Teresa Hulton had worked with Belgian refugees in London and as a Red Cross nurse in Italy. The couple dedicated themselves to the renovation of the house, with Hulton taking on responsibility for the conservation of historic textiles.
During the Second World War, Edgbaston Church of England Girls' School was evacuated and lived in part of the house; it later hosted the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.
In 1952 the Attingham Trust was set up by George Trevelyan and Helen Lowenthal, the purpose of the Attingham Trust being to offer American curators the opportunity to learn about British country houses. A summer school has been run by the Attingham Trust every year since 1952 and now takes in a diverse array of country houses around the United Kingdom including some National Trust properties. The Attingham name has since been used worldwide with the American Friends of the Attingham Trust being founded in 1962 in New York City, and the Attingham Society being founded in 1985. The Attingham Society covers the whole world and alongside the American Friends its purpose is to keep its members in touch and the continued education and interest of British country houses.
Attingham is a National Trust regional hub for Herefordshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire.
Attingham is also the location of one of the two surviving Regency era bee houses in the country.Douglas, p.27 The Attingham bee house dates to 1805, has a slate roof to keep the hives dry, and lattice work to enable bees to freely fly in and out.
Attingham's Stables were purpose-built at the same time as the house for the first Lord Berwick. Designed by Steuart, they have pyramidal ornamentation and were purposefully sited on the approach to the house, as a demonstration of taste and wealth.
The park was landscaped by Humphry Repton and includes and a deer park. As of 2018, around 180 fallow deer lived in the park, with number maintained through an annual cull.Douglas, p.44
River Tern, which flows through the centre of the estate, joins the larger River Severn at the confluence just south of the Tern Bridge.
The rivers were also used by the estate, with ironworks on the Tern that enhanced family fortune in the 1700s. Fish from the rivers were an important resource, both for food and for recreation.Douglas, p.41The park is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) due to it being home to many rare species of invertebrates. There are seven units of SSSI around the park totalling to , nearly three-quarters of the entire estate. The amount of deadwood left by fallen trees around the parkland makes it the perfect habitat for a variety of different species, primarily beetles. Several of these beetle species are adapted to the ecology of ancient trees, including the flat bark beetle, Notolaemus unifasciatus, and the silken fungus beetle, Atomaria barani. In 2005 a survey of the flora of the park was undertaken by Shropshire Botanical Society, which identified 68 species in the park, that had not been recorded on the last survey undertaken 1969–72. Drainage of the site had an impact on several species, with the loss of Alopecurus aequalis, Rumex maritimus and Veronica scutellata, as well as the additions of dry heathland species such as Veronica officinalis and Ulex europaeus.Whild, Sarah, et al. "New Flora of Attingham Park." (2005).
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