Pell Wall Hall

Pell Wall Hall is a neo-classical country house on the outskirts of Market Drayton in Shropshire. It was the last completed domestic house designed by Sir John Soane and was constructed 1822-1829 for Purney Sillitoe for a total cost of £20,976. [ [http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/conBar.7421 Pell Wall Hall : Heritage at Risk Register : Heritage at Risk : Heritage Protection : Research & Conservation : English Heritage ] ]

It was used for it's original purpose until 1928 when it was acquired by the Brothers of Christian Instruction, initially as a theological college and latterly as a boy's boarding school. The building was abandoned in 1962 and left to deteriorate until May 1986 when it was gutted by a fire which burnt for three days.

Ownership of Pell Wall passed to the local authority in 1988 under a compulsory purchase order [cite book | last = Pearce | first = David | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Conservation Today: Conservation in Britain Since 1975 | publisher = Routledge | date = 1989 | location = | pages = 23 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = ] it was subsequently "sold" to the Pell Wall Hall Trust for £1. Over the next ten years later Victorian and Edwardian additions were completely removed and the shell of the John Soane original was restored using a one million pound grant from English Heritage and a loan from the Architectural Heritage Fund. Restoration of the interior is in progress funded by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund but is still incomplete.

References

External links

* [http://www.francisfrith.com/search/england/shropshire/pell+wall/ Photographs and memories of Pell Wall on Francis Frith]
* [http://met.open.ac.uk/met_vr/vr_soane.html Photograhs and films of Pell Wall taken in 1996 and 1997 for an Open University project]