Shugborough Hall
|
Shugborough Hall in the 1820s. |
Shugborough Hall is a
country house in
Milford, near
Stafford,
Staffordshire,
England, on the north-eastern edge of
Cannock Chase.
Shugborough is the ancestral home of the
Earls of Lichfield. It is situated near
Stafford and about four miles from the market town of
Rugeley and which is also about 15 miles from the city of
Lichfield. The house was enlarged around
1750 and again at the turn of the
19th Century. While the entire estate is owned by the
National Trust, it has been maintained and operated by Staffordshire County Council since the 1960s on a 99-year lease.
The house contains a collection of photographs by the house's most illustrous resident, the royal photographer
Lord Lichfield.
Patrick Lichfield died in late 2005.
The grounds and mansion house are open to the public and include a working model farm museum dating from
1805 complete with a working
watermill,
kitchens and
dairy, and rare breeds of farm animals and a tea room. The
walled garden, also dating from 1805, was restored in 2006 and is now also open to the public.
The house also incorporates the historical servants' quarters. Within these the brewhouse is to be found, which was restored in 1990. It is the only log-fired brewery in the country that still produces beer commercially.
The grounds contain the
Shugborough House inscription which is thought by some to be an uncracked
ciphertext containing a clue to the location of the
Holy Grail.
*
Shugborough information at the National Trust*
Shugborough Garden - information on garden history and design*
Official website of Shugborough
