The history of Attingham

Painting of View of Tern Hall from the front, set in parkland with deer and carriage — View of Tern Hall from the front, set in parkland with deer and carriage | © National Trust Images/John Hammond

From ancient landscapes to mansion restoration, to then becoming home to a pioneering college, as we delve into the history of the Attingham Estate we can see that it has witnessed a lot of change and played a special role in the lives of many local people.

4,000 years in the making

Attingham's Estate has been shaped by the rivers that converge on it, the Tern and Severn. The rich productive soil in this fertile valley of the two rivers provided water, food and transport. Attingham’s earliest settlers found this to their liking, with lots of evidence of human activity from Iron Age field systems and Bronze Age barrows to the Roman city of Viroconium (now known as Wroxeter) and Saxon palaces.

Built for the first Lord Berwick in 1785, and replacing Tern Hall, Attingham Hall and its beautiful parkland were owned by one family for more than 160 years. As their fortunes rose and fell, the family proved themselves to be spenders, savers and saviours - providing a fascinating story of love and neglect, the marks of which still stand in Attingham’s rooms today.

The Hill family

The Hill family, later to become the Lords Berwick, bought the original piece of land at Attingham in 1700. It came indirectly from land taken from Haughmond Abbey during the Dissolution. Over the next century, the family added to it until there were over 8,000 acres, extending right up into Shrewsbury.

Tern Hall, which was built in the early 1700s was the home of the Hill family. Later, it was incorporated into the 'new' mansion built in the 1780s

The family made their money through politics, the acquisition of land, moneylending and mining. However, not all of them proved to be so good at managing their great fortune.

The work of the 8th and last Lord Berwick, Thomas, and his wife Teresa, to restore the mansion meant that half of the estate was sold off in the first half of the 20th century, leaving nearly 4,000 acres that are still managed today.

Attingham history, ten facts:

The word Attingham comes from the Saxon ‘dwelling of the people of St Eata’
Berwick Maviston was a medieval village ‘deserted’ and cleared c.1800 in advance of the enlargement of Attingham, under the first Lord Berwick
The original house was called Tern Hall, named after the river that flows close by
1st Lord Berwick moved the London-Holyhead road further away from the house as part of the enlargement of the estate
The family motto is apt: ‘Let wealth be his who knows its use’
Thomas, 2nd Lord Berwick, once had a working model of Mount Vesuvius
The 8th Lord Berwick was president of the RSPCA for 25 years
During the Second World War an airfield was built to the east of the park
The Orangery was once used as a cinema
Percy Thrower presented BBC gardening shows here in the 1950.

Tern Bridge with Attingham in the in the distance from Repton's Red Book at Attingham Park, Shropshire — Tern Bridge from Repton's Red Book at Attingham Park | © National Trust Images/Mike Williams

Humphry Repton and the landscape of Attingham

It's over 220 years since the landscape you see at Attingham today was designed by Humphry Repton, the great landscape designer of the late 1700s and early 1800s. Repton worked at Attingham in the earlier stages of his career and his ideas about landscape design continue to influence designers today.

Repton was a designer, presenting his clients with a 'Red Book' of paintings and drawings of before, and after, his suggested improvements, he did not oversee the carrying out of the improvements his designs suggested.

Thomas, 2nd Lord Berwick commissioned Repton in 1797 to work on proposals for his land at Attingham. He was paid a stipend of one hundred guineas a year for two visits. Repton completed his ‘Red Book’ the following year and Thomas went on to carry out a number of his suggestions, such as re-routing the main driveway to the Mansion, to create a more impressive view when approaching it by carriage, on horse, or foot.

Attingham is one of the few landscapes to have Repton’s original 'Red Book' of designs in its collection, as well as the majority of his improvement still evident in the landscape today.

Revealing a forgotten history

Attingham was home to a pioneering Adult Education College from 1948–1976. The college offered a radical range of courses alongside more traditional options. Some classes required students to get up at 3am to listen to birdsong and sit on the roof identifying star constellations late into the night.

The Shropshire Adult Education College was an innovation, offering students the opportunity to study in the beautiful surroundings of Attingham Hall and its grounds, to people from all backgrounds and walks of life.

The college started small with only 30 resident students, to later attracting thousands of local, national and international students at its height. It’s an important chapter in Attingham’s history as a property which played a special role in the lives of many local people.