Summary
Beckbury Hall stands at the heart of the village to the west of the parish church. The house’s east-facing gabled entrance front has applied timber framing, giving the house an Arts and Crafts air, although it is in fact a building of sixteenth-century origin. It is, effectively, a hall range with cross wings and is probably indebted to the patronage of the Haughton family who, by 1541, acquired property in Beckbury from the successors of John Petit (d. 1501). Petit had been lord of the manor, but the manorial rights did not belong to the owners of Beckbury Hall, instead descending with the Badger Hall estate (q.v.).
John Haughton of Beckbury is known to have greatly enlarged his family’s landholding in the area by the purchase, in 1585, of the manor house and other properties which he acquired from Petit’s successor, John Grey. The Haughton family remained at Beckbury Hall until, soon after 1668, the property was sold to Sir Richard Astley, 1st Bt (d. 1688) of Patshull Hall. Sir Richard, although married twice, also had a relationship with a Miss Reynell or Reynold, by whom he fathered a daughter, Anne Astley (c. 1688–1729). Anne married Walter Stubbs of Harrington Hall near Shifnal – a member of a family who were said to have arrived in England from Denmark in the reign of James I, and they were given a term of three lives’ tenancy of Beckbury Hall and its estate although they later owned the property outright.
Walter and Anne Stubbs were succeeded at Beckbury by their son, another Walter Stubbs (1687– 1754), who married Judith Goldsmyth (1696–1760) in 1712. During his ownership, William Baker of Audlem might have had a hand in alterations to the house, namely the re-fronting of the west facing garden front in brick. Here the lunette window suggests Baker’s hand and the reference to Stubbs ‘for Brinton plans’ in Baker’s notebook may represent a misinterpretation of Beckbury.
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- The Country Houses of Shropshire , pp. 80 - 82Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2021