The Fernhill estate was originally centred upon the house that is now known as Great Fernhill, a truncated brick house that was latterly a farmhouse, set to the west of Fernhill Hall.

Fernhill had been a possession of the Arundels until the Manor of Whittington, advowsons of Selattyn and Whittington, and the Fernhill estate itself was sold by Henry FitzAlan, 19th and last Earl of Arundel of the second creation, to the London merchant-tailor William Albany. His son, Francis Albany of Fernhill and Whittington, was Sheriff of Shropshire in 1595, and the property was ultimately inherited by his granddaughter Sarah, who married Thomas Lloyd, son of the Parliamentarian Colonel Andrew Lloyd of Aston (q.v.).

The house that she brought to the Lloyds – Great Fernhill – was probably a fairly new one, of brick, two storeys with a pitched roof that oversailed its outer walls with a modillion cornice. Within, a handsome ramped staircase, with square newels and spiral-turned balusters that support a broad moulded handrail, still survives to hint at the grandeur of the house’s original interiors. Although Whittington was retained by the Lloyds, Fernhill was sold to the Lovetts, in 1825, the family also associated with Henlle (q.v.). The Albany house was thereafter adapted as a farmhouse and its main front reduced to just three bays.

By way of replacement, the Lovetts commissioned a handsome, small, early nineteenth-century, south-facing Greek revival villa of Ruabon stone, set on a new site within a picturesque park. This was designed by John Hiram and Edward Haycock in 1825 for Thomas Lovett (1792–1863), the seventh son of John Lovett of Oswestry (1754–1795) and his wife, Anne, daughter of Edward Venables of Liverpool. With its simple three bay and two storey elevation, centred by a single storey Grinshill stone portico of four Greek Doric columns supporting an entablature, the house recalls Edward Haycock’s work at Clungunford and elsewhere. The pedimented tripartite windows flanking a canted bay on the west front are further Haycock hallmarks, as also are the good quality mahogany panelled doors, with twin square panels at their centres, which Haycock also used at Millichope (q.v.) and Clytha, Gwent.