Like all the best buildings this one is hard to find. To add confusion, its two faces are each quite different: one, formerly presented to the outside world but now looking on to a working farm, is of plain dressed stone. The other, which once looked inwards at Langley Hall (demolished by 1880), is timber-framed in the best local tradition. Both are Jacobean, although the lower part of the outer wall was already ancient when Sir Humphrey Lee added this gatehouse above it in about 1610.

The new building was probably for the Steward, or important guests. The parlour, over the gate passage, was panelled (and is again) with a moulded plaster cornice. On either side are rooms of generous size, and above are attics, squeezed in among the aisled structure of the queen-post roof. The roof slates of moss-covered Harnage stone are thick with fossilised shells.

The gatehouse was near to collapse when, as a joint operation with English Heritage, we began work on it in 1992 – indeed its northeast corner post appeared to be supported solely by a wine bottle wedged beneath its decayed foot. The exemplary quality of the repairs is a pleasure to see; as also is the view from the main windows down a wide valley to the Wrekin.

View our history sheet for this Landmark

Sleeps: 6