Downton Hall should not be confused with Downton Castle.
Downton Hall is a privately owned 18th-century country house at Stanton Lacy, near Ludlow, Shropshire. It is a Grade II* listed building.[1]
The house was built about 1733 by Wredenhall Pearce, who had inherited the estate in 1731.The new house, designed by William Smith Jr. of Warwick, of three storeys and with a twelve-bay frontage carrying a balustraded parapet, boasts an unusual circular entrance hall with Ionic columns and a honeysuckle frieze.[1] [2]
In 1781 Catherine Pearce, daughter and heir of William Pearce married Charles William Rouse-Boughton MP (see Boughton Baronets).[3] Improvements to the house in 1824 included a new entrance front, designed by architect Edward Haycock, with a Doric style portico.[2]
Sir Charles Henry Rouse-Boughton was resident in 1881 with his family and nine domestic servants.[4] Following the death of the last Baronet in 1963 his daughter Miss MF Rouse-Boughton continued to live at the Hall.[5]