Introduction

Tedsmore Hall, in West Felton, was built in 1768 for Richard Bulkeley Hatchett, being remodelled and extended in a gothick style in the mid and later 19th century.

By 1817 it was surrounded by grounds approached from the west by a fine double avenue of trees over a half mile long. In the later 19th century shrubberies and walks lay north of the Hall, and kitchen gardens and an ice-house to the east. The main carriage approach, guarded by a lodge, lay to the south-west.

In 1884 Tedsmore Hall was the home of the Revd. T. Bulkeley Owen. Its gardens were highly regarded, and the subject of a lengthy article in The Gardeners’ Chronicle.

Early History

1000–1200

In the Domesday period (around the year 1086), Shelvock was one of the three Berewicks (a hamlet attached to a manor) of the Manor of Wykey. This manor was owned in Edward the Confessor’s time by Edwin, Earl of Mercia. In William the Conqueror’s time it was owned by one Odo, who owned also Hordley and Ruyton, but held them all under Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury.

The earl’s son Robert rebelled and forfeited his property in 1102, and Wykey, as with many other of his manors, was given to Alan Fitz Flaald, hereditary Sheriff of Shropshire and ancestor of the Stewart Kings of Scotland. Flaald’s son, William Fitz Alan, gave Ruyton and Wykey to John Le Strange about 1155, to hold under him. Le Strange gave Shelvock and all its appurtenances to one William Fitz Walter and his heirs to hold of himself and his heirs.

Sometime between the Domesday Book and 1175, Shelvock became the head of the Manor which was originally the Domesday Manor of Wykey.