Summary
Dunval was originally a seat of a junior branch of the Acton family in Richard Acton (d. 1650). Richard was a younger son of Robert Acton (1534–97) of Aldenham (q.v.) and his wife, Bridget Doddington, alias Detton, who had gone into trade in London.
It is a handsome timbered house of U-plan form, of two storeys with attics, that appears to date from the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century. Dunval’s entrance front has a pair of gabled projections which, like the central hall range, have a highly decorative and nearly symmetrical façade of close studded and lozenge panel decoration. A subtle difference between the wings is in the direction of the spikes of the cusps on the lozenges. On one wing they point upwards and on the other, downwards. The front is framed by a pair of stout, outbuilt chimney stacks that are crowned by star-plan shafts.
In 1887 it was noted that the dining room had a decorated plaster ceiling that was ‘partly obliterated’. At that date, the property had passed from Elizabeth Acton to her son John Bowen who had just sold the property. In the late twentieth century the house was the home of Mr Francis Thompson.
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- The Country Houses of Shropshire , pp. 235Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2021