OSW-PH-P-2-11 – Park Hall Mansion

Park Hall by Stanley Leighton, Sept 1883. Park Hall destroyed by fire in 1918 – Volume 4 Stanley Leighton Sketches

Park Hall. Oswestry. (Mrs Wynne Corrie.)
Robert Powell Whittington, bought Park from Henry, ‘Earli of Arundel. in 1563, and built this house here. Sir Francis Charlton of Ludford, bought the estate from the Powells in 1717. Emma, sister and heir of Job Charlton in 1761, carried the property. into the family of her third husband. John Kinchant. In 1870 it was sold by the Kinchants to Mrs. Wynne Corrio.

The frontage presents perhaps the best example of “black & white” in Shropshire. There is here a small Chapel. In the Hall is a table of a single oak plank, 23 ft. by 4 ft. and 2 1/2  inches thick. In the ceiling of the drawing-room is some 17th. century plaster work. A number of Latin mottoes ornament the walls. On a sun-dial. row removed, were the following stanzas. Date 1578.
PRASTERIT AETAS               UT FUGIT AETAS                      SICQUOQUE NOSTRA

NEC REMORANTE                 UTQUE CITATUS                      PRECIPITANTER

LAPSA RECEDUNT                TURBINIS INSTAR                    VITA RECEDIT

SOECULA CURSU                    VOLVITUR ANNUS                   OCYOR UNDIS.

The Cycle is passing                  As passes the Cycle                   So too own my life

The Ages no more                      As sure and as fast                   Grows less unto me

Return in their Courses            The year is rolled by                As the tide wave recedes

The same as before.                  Like the breath of the blast    To the depths of the sea

The old portion of the house has all the distinctive features of the substantial timber building of the 16th. century. There was once  a gate-house, which Evelyn notices as having a bean of extraordinary size, but there are no traces now of tho Gate-house. nor of the Sundial  nor of the raised terrace. There still remain some hansom lime trees, and a few walnut trees, but most of the valuable timber has been cut down. A long oak table of a single beam, made in the 16th Century, is in the Hall.

A red-brick addition was made to the house in 1898 (see next sketch) but the frontage has not been altered.