Shugborough Hall is a large, historic house located near Great Haywood, Staffordshire, England.

The hall is found on the edge of Cannock Chase, approximately 5.8 miles (9.3 km) east of Stafford and 4.7 miles (7.6 km) from Rugeley. The estate was owned by the Bishops of Lichfield until the closing of the monasteries. After that, it changed hands several times before being bought in 1624 by William Anson, a local lawyer and ancestor of the Earls of Lichfield. The estate stayed in the Anson family for three centuries. After the death of the 4th Earl of Lichfield in 1960, the estate was given to the National Trust instead of paying death duties. It was then immediately rented to Staffordshire County Council. Management of the estate was returned to the National Trust in 2016. The estate is open to the public and includes the hall, museum, kitchen garden, and a model farm.

History

The Shugborough estate was owned by the Bishops of Lichfield until the monasteries were closed around 1540. After that, the estate changed hands many times until it was bought in 1624 by William Anson (about 1580–1644), a lawyer from Dunston, Staffordshire, for £1,000. In 1693, William Anson’s grandson, also named William (1656–1720), tore down the old manor house and built a three-story building that is still the center of the hall today.

William’s older son, Thomas Anson MP (1695–1773), added two pavilions to the sides of the central building in the 1740s. These changes were paid for by Thomas’s younger brother, Admiral George Anson, who became Lord Anson in 1747 and First Lord of the Admiralty in 1751. George earned a large fortune during his naval career. When he died without children, he left most of his wealth to his older brother, Thomas. Thomas also had no children, so the estate went to his sister’s son, George Adams, who later took the name Anson with royal permission.

In 1806, George’s son Thomas (1767–1818) became the 1st Viscount Anson. His son, the 2nd Viscount, was made 1st Earl of Lichfield in the 1831 Coronation Honours. The Earl lived extravagantly and had many debts, which forced him to sell everything in the house in a two-week sale in 1842. Though Thomas George Anson, 2nd Earl of Lichfield, tried to restore the house and its contents, by the time his son inherited the estate, it was heavily in debt.

In 1831, Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent, who later became Queen Victoria, visited Shugborough at age 12 with her mother, the Duchess of Kent, during a long tour of the country. The young princess stayed with several local landowners, including John Talbot, 16th Earl of Shrewsbury.

The Trent Valley Line, planned in 1845, runs from east to west through the southern part of the park. This railway travels underground through the 777-yard (710 m) Shugborough Tunnel, which has little visual impact. The tunnel entrances, listed as grade II, are decorated, especially the western entrance from 1847. A bridge, built in 1847 and also listed as grade II, crosses over the tunnel near Lichfield Lodge. The double-track line is part of the West Coast Main Line, connecting Colwich Junction and Stafford.

After the death of the 4th Earl in 1960, an agreement was made for the estate to go to the National Trust instead of paying death duties. The deal was completed, and the house opened to the public in 1966. The estate was then leased to Staffordshire County Council, which managed it for the National Trust. Patrick Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield, lived in an apartment in the hall until his death in 2005, paying a small rent. His successor, the 6th Earl, gave up the lease, ending the family’s direct connection to the estate.

In 2016, Staffordshire County Council returned the estate to the National Trust, with 49 years left on the lease. This move is expected to save the council £35 million, and the Trust plans to invest more in the property.

The grounds and mansion house are open to the public. The estate is called "The Complete Working Historic Estate," which includes a working model farm museum from 1805. The museum has a working watermill, kitchens, a dairy, a tea room, and rare farm animals. Restored in 1990, the estate’s brewery is England’s only log-fired brewery still making beer commercially. The brewhouse, previously used only for special events, has been a working exhibit since 2007, operated by Titanic Brewery.

Since 2011, the private apartments have displayed the work of Patrick Lichfield. His cameras and lighting equipment are set up in a recreated version of his studio, and a gallery shows some of his most famous photographs.

Architecture

The state rooms at Shugborough Hall include The State Dining Room, The Red Drawing Room, The Library, The Saloon, The Verandah Room, The Anson Room, and The State Bedroom. These rooms have some of the most beautifully decorated and fancy interiors in the hall.

The Verandah Room contains a special set of 208 porcelain plates made to celebrate Admiral Anson's journey around the world in the ship HMS Centurion. The plates were given to Admiral Anson as thanks for helping put out big fires in the merchant area of Canton. (Story narrated by Shugborough guide, October 2015). The State Bedroom has a view of the terrace and was used by Queen Victoria during her childhood visit.

The private apartments were where the 5th Earl and his family lived until 2010. The Boudoir, with its shiny silver wallpaper, is the only room in the hall with hand-painted ceilings decorated with gold. Other rooms include The Lilac and Yellow Bedrooms, The Sitting Room, and the completely round Breakfast Room.

In about 1693, William Anson (1656–1720) tore down the old house and built a new mansion. The entrance of the house, which faced west, had a three-story central part with seven windows and a balustrade. In about 1748, his great-grandson Thomas Anson (1767–1818) hired architect Thomas Wright to redesign the house. The house was expanded with two-story buildings on either side of the central part, connected by passages with decorative arches.

At the start of the 19th century, architect Samuel Wyatt made more changes to the house. The side buildings and passages were added to the main house, and a new entrance with ten pillars resembling ancient Greek columns was built on the east side. These pillars look like stone but are actually hollow wood. These changes were made for Thomas Anson, 1st Viscount Anson, and his wife Anne Margaret Coke, whom he married in 1794. The hall, as it appears today, has a style inspired by ancient Greece and is covered in slate that looks like stone.

Like many landowners of his time, Thomas Anson (1695–1773) cared about the design of his parkland. The land around Shugborough was mostly flat, so trees, decorative structures, and water features were used to shape the landscape. The grounds include several decorative buildings, such as The Chinese House and two bridges with Chinese designs, created in honor of Admiral George Anson. Admiral Anson, who visited Canton, left money to his brother Thomas Anson, which was used to build the hall and estate. The Chinese House and the red iron footbridge are both listed as Grade I historical sites.

In 1760, architect James Stuart was asked to design monuments for Shugborough. Stuart had visited Athens in the 1750s, and Greek influences are clear in the designs. He created a copy of the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates and a Grade I listed triumphal arch inspired by the Arch of Hadrian in Athens.

The Shepherd's Monument is a decorative stone and marble structure in the grounds of Shugborough Hall. It has the inscriptions "O.U.O.S.V.A.V.V" and "D.M." The monument became famous worldwide in 1982 when the book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail highlighted the mysterious inscription. The monument was carved by Peter Scheemakers, and many theories suggest it might relate to the location of the Holy Grail.