Whitton Hall epitomises the quiet charm of the English country house. Hidden from the twenty-first century down an oak-lined lane, it gazes across its garden, farm lane and pool to the gentle folds of the land that rises beyond. It is an idyllic, secluded setting, animated by the Jersey herd of the current owners, who became custodians of the place in the late 1950s.

Whitton had been a part of the great Caus Castle landholdings of the Corbet family in medieval times but passed to tenants who had taken their name from the lands that they held at Whitton. The first of these was recorded in 1209 and Whitton’s descent followed through the de Whitton family until, on the death of John de Whitton (fl. 1450), his daughter carried the estate to her husband, William Lingen of Lingen, Herefordshire. The Lingens remained the owners of Whitton until the end of the sixteenth century when the estate passed by marriage to the Topp family. Elizabeth Lingen, in 1594, married Alexander Topp (d. 1663) of Fisherton, Salisbury, and of Stockton in Wiltshire – a union which had reputedly come about as a result of Alexander travelling with Elizabeth’s uncle, the theologian Hugh Broughton (1549–1612).

Alexander and Elizabeth Topp’s son, Lingen Topp served as High Sheriff of Shropshire in 1679 and married twice. By his second wife, Dorothy (d. 1663), he had a son and eventual successor, Alexander Topp (circa 1640–1722), who is generally credited as the builder of the present house at Whitton. The overall form of the house – with its tight three-bay centre flanked by a pair of projecting two-bay gabled cross-wings, with two storeys and attic – has a distinct later seventeenth-century look to its proportions and it is tempting to consider whether the house is not, in fact, a rebuilding in brick of a timber-framed structure.

Alexander Topp had married Barbara Corbet (d. 1691) of Glyn, and their son, John Topp (1683–1736) – who married Ursula Payne (d. 1747) – evidently also had a hand in the building. This is evidenced from date stones of 1727 and 1731 (the latter bearing the younger couple’s initials) which were recorded as having been formerly re-set into the garden wall.