Upton Cressett Hall

Upton Cressett Hall is an Elizabethan moated manor house in the villageSmall rural collection of buildings with a church. of Upton Cressett, Shropshire. Standing on a medieval moated site, the earliest parts of the building have been dated to 1428–1431. It was built for Hugh Cressett, a Royal Commissioner along the Welsh March and Constable of Mortimer Castle. As originally constructed, it was a timber-framed house with an open aisled hall, a solarRoom in many medieval manor houses, designed as the family's private quarters. wing at its north-east end, and at least one other cross wing.^[1]

The house was substantially remodelled in 1580 by Richard Cressett, who encased the building in brick, added large brick chimneystacks, and by creating a false ceiling in the Great Hall allowed the creation of first-floor rooms.^[1]

After Cound Hall became the Cressett family seat in 1792, Upton Cressett Hall was used as a farmhouse until its purchase for use as a shooting lodge by the carpet manufacturer Sir Herbert Smith, in about 1937. After his death in 1943 the house was left unoccupied, and gradually fell into a state of disrepair. It was purchased by the parents of the current owner, the writer and journalist William Cash, in 1969, and has since been substantially restored.^[1]

Upton Cressett Hall was designated a Grade I listed buildingStructure of particular architectural and/or historic interest deserving of special protection. in 1951.^[1] The late 16th-century Gatehouse is separately designated a Grade I listed building.^[2]