Mawley Hall, is an outstanding example of an English Baroque Country House, with interiors that rival the finest of its period anywhere in the world. This is reflected in its status as a Grade I Listed building. It is the centrepiece of the Mawley Estate, one of the most important historic estates in Shropshire.
“Nowhere in Shropshire can match Mawley for the exuberance and idiosyncrasy of its interior decoration. The house was built on a new site c. 1728-33, for Sir Edward Blount, 4th Baronet of a Catholic family who in 1743 was reported to have wholly ‘designed and directed’ it himself. But interior details reveal the hand of craftsmen who worked for Francis Smith of Warwick, and both the plan and the exterior are characteristic of Smith. So it would be truer to say that Mawley is the product of Smith’s professionalism as architect, the skills of some of the finest craftsmen of the day working under his direction, and what must have been the ebullience, the fertile imagination and the deep purse of Blount himself.” ¹
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Substantial re-investment has been made over the last three years, protecting buildings and landscape from further decline, and working closely with Shropshire Council and Historic England to agree and implement a programme of repair and restoration.
There has also been considerable investment in infrastructure, facilities, housing and people, as Mawley Hall LLP approaches the challenge of creating a commercially sound 21st Century working estate.
Lady Elizabeth Blount (1850-1925) was the wife of Sir Walter Blount, 9th Baronet. She divided her time between Mawley Hall and London where she was well known as a pamphlet writer and social activist. She also led a society which believed that the Earth is flat, conducting unconvincing experiments on the Old Bedford Level Canal.
The Blount family continued to be prominent Roman Catholics, incorporating a Catholic church within the fabric of Mawley Hall.
¹ The Buildings of England (Shropshire): John Newman and Nikolaus Pevsner