The Benedictine monks of Bromfield Priory added a new stone gatehouse to their precinct before 1400. After the Dissolution a timber-framed upper storey was added to this. The room over the arch was used for the manorial court, and later, from 1836 until 1895, for the village school. A teacher’s cottage was added at one end and the Gatehouse was largely done up in a Picturesque manner.

Afterwards it became, for many years, the parish reading and recreation room, complete with billiard table, and came in useful for meetings of various sorts, from the youth club to the teaching of first aid. This functional character has rubbed off on the school room itself, which is large and plain and a little formal. At one end, a chimney piece and large cupboards have been put together from an odd assortment of Jacobean carving.

Bromfield itself is an estate village and South Shropshire, with Ludlow as its capital, is deep country still. The Gatehouse now opens on to a grassy churchyard, and the estate office and yard. In front runs a private road, leading only to a few farms and to Oakly Park (the lodge was designed by C. R. Cockerell), successor to the Tudor priory house whose ruins can still be seen on the south side of the parish church.

View our history sheet for this Landmark.

Sleeps: 6