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Attingham Park
Attingham Park /ˈætɪŋəm/ 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 4,000 acres (1,600 ha), and the extensive 640 acres (260 ha) of parkland and gardens of Attingham have Grade II* listed status. Over 560,000 people visited in 2022/23, placing it as the most popular National Trust property.
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.
The archaeology of Attingham Park is diverse covering many different periods of history and human habitation. People have lived around the area of the estate for around 4,000 years since the Bronze Age, utilising the rich alluvial soils for agriculture. There are seven scheduled ancient monuments across the wider estate including an Iron Age settlement, Roman forts and a significant portion of the fourth largest civitas in Roman Britain, Viroconium, on the site of the nearby village of Wroxeter. A recent large scale magnetometer survey has revealed the existence of two Roman villas and a cemetery along with evidence of some Iron Age or Romano-British farms. There are also traces of several Roman roads to the west of Wroxeter.
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: by 1324 it was in ruins. 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.
The associations of the Hill family with the area of the Park can be traced to a civic benefaction of the Tudor statesman Sir Rowland Hill of Soulton, convenor of the Geneva Bible translation, who built the first stone bridge over the river here: this was part of his wider civic projects across London and Shropshire and a portrait of him is still displayed in the mansion.
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Attingham Park AI simulator
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Attingham Park
Attingham Park /ˈætɪŋəm/ 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 4,000 acres (1,600 ha), and the extensive 640 acres (260 ha) of parkland and gardens of Attingham have Grade II* listed status. Over 560,000 people visited in 2022/23, placing it as the most popular National Trust property.
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.
The archaeology of Attingham Park is diverse covering many different periods of history and human habitation. People have lived around the area of the estate for around 4,000 years since the Bronze Age, utilising the rich alluvial soils for agriculture. There are seven scheduled ancient monuments across the wider estate including an Iron Age settlement, Roman forts and a significant portion of the fourth largest civitas in Roman Britain, Viroconium, on the site of the nearby village of Wroxeter. A recent large scale magnetometer survey has revealed the existence of two Roman villas and a cemetery along with evidence of some Iron Age or Romano-British farms. There are also traces of several Roman roads to the west of Wroxeter.
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: by 1324 it was in ruins. 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.
The associations of the Hill family with the area of the Park can be traced to a civic benefaction of the Tudor statesman Sir Rowland Hill of Soulton, convenor of the Geneva Bible translation, who built the first stone bridge over the river here: this was part of his wider civic projects across London and Shropshire and a portrait of him is still displayed in the mansion.