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.
