A sketch by Stanley Leighton of Sweeney Hall. near Oswestry.
Thomas Netherton Parker of the White House co. Worcester, married Sarah Browne. the heiress of Sweeney. and built the present house in 1805. Thomas Baker, from whom the Brownes derived the estate, in the beginning of the 17th. century. “erected a new fair house in Sweeney, a handsome pile of building, the contriver’s name was Baker, he was a disbanded Captain. I’ve heard Mr. Baker say it was wholly built in 16 weeks.” So writes Gough in his quaint history of ‘Middle.
The only remnant left of the earlier house, are the pillars of the entrance gate.
Mr. Baker was a parliamentarian in the civil wars, and was Sheriff of the county in 1649, and (knight of the Shire in 1654. He was buried in the orchard of his house where his tomb, together with those of a few others, may still be seen.
Mary, the daughter and eventual heir of Thomas Netherton Parker, married Sir Baldwin Leighton Bt. and their second son, Mr. Stanley Leighton is (in 1880) the present owner.
Thomas Netherton Parker built the present house in 1805 on the site of the older one.
