House & Family History: Standing close to the Wrekin Hill, the great Shropshire landmark immortalized by Housman in his "A Shropshire Lad," and which forms a part of its estate, is Orleton Hall. Today the home the Holt family, Orleton has passed by descent from the late 14th century. The site of the House is an ancient one, originally home to the Holts' ancestors, the Cludde family, who are remembered today in the name of the nearby hamlet of Cluddley, from which they took their name. Parts of a timber-framed medieval building have been discovered in the South Wing of the House during recent restoration works, while the tight turns of the main staircase suggest that it is on the site of a Tudor stair. In the grounds, sections of a moat, presided over by a lovely cupola-surmounted Gatehouse of the 16th century, attest to the site's antiquity. Today, though, the main house appears otherwise Georgian, following various rebuilds in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, as the Cludde family responded to the fashions of the times. The West Façade is now crowned by a giant pediment, while the east-facing Entrance Façade has a suave Regency single-story colonnade of unfluted Greek Doric columns added by the Shrewsbury architect Edward Haycock in the 1830s. Haycock also altered the House's main ground floor rooms, which now have plasterwork and chimney pieces redolent of the Greek Revival. The heiress of the Cluddes, Anna Maria, in 1854 married The Hon. Robert Charles Herbert, fourth son of the 2nd Earl of Powis and a descendant of Clive of India. Their grandson, Lt.-Col. E.R.H. Herbert, succeeded as the 5th Earl of Powis and made over the Estate to his nephew, V.M.E. Holt, prior to his death in 1974. (We are extremely grateful to Gareth Williams for this history of Orleton.)

House Listed: Grade II*

Park Listed: Grade II

Current Seat / Home of: Peter and Sarah Holt; Holt family here since the 1970s.

Past Seat / Home of: Cludde family, 14th century until the mid-19th century. The Hon. Robert Charles Herbert, 19th century. Lt.-Col. E.R.H. Herbert, later 5th Earl of Powis, 20th century.

Current Ownership Type: Individual / Family Trust

Primary Current Ownership Use: Private Home

House Open to Public: No

Historic Houses Member: No