Summary
Faintree was the possession of the Whitton family, who were resident prior to 1430 and retained ownership until at least 1604. By 1612, though, Faintree was owned by the Briggs family when Oliver Briggs of Faintree was buried in the church at Chetton. Briggs was the younger son and namesake of Oliver Briggs of Faintree and his second wife, Anne, daughter of Hugh Coningsby of Neen Sollars. His elder brother, Humphrey, married Anne, daughter and heiress of Robert Moreton of Haughton Hall near Shifnal (q.v.).
In 1677, the manor of Faintree was sold by Sir Humphrey Briggs, Bt, of Haughton to Thomas Pardoe. Pardoe had already been resident in the area since he is named as a church warden of Chetton in 1665. The estate then passed by descent to Thomas Pardoe, High Sheriff of Shropshire in 1791. His only child, Hester Maria (d. 1810), married William Purton in 1799 and took the house to that family. The Purtons were said to have originated at the place of that name at Tettenhall near Wolverhampton, but had long been settled at Eudon. The current house, a rectangular brick block of five bays and three storeys beneath a low pitched roof, was built in 1805 for William Purton and his bride following the demolition of the earlier house. It is distinguished by full height brick pilasters standing at the angles and embracing the broad centre bay, whilst a single storey pedimented porch, raised on pairs of Tuscan columns, stands at the centre.
Their son, Thomas Pardoe Purton (1801–1885), married Caroline Frances Lampet in 1831, and they, in turn, were succeeded at Faintree by their son, William Cecil Pardoe Purton (1835–1889), who was a partner in Copper, Purton & Sons Bank at Bridgnorth and at Wenlock. W.C.P. Purton married in 1862 Frances Elizabeth Twist but the couple had no children. In their time, the house was set in a small park and approached from the east by a drive that commenced from a gabled lodge with decorated bargeboards.
By 1943 the house was no longer owned by the Purtons and was the home of Christopher Wood.
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- Information
- The Country Houses of Shropshire , pp. 247 - 248Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2021