Property description

The Abbey House, set in 23 acres of river-side gardens and parkland grounds next to the ruined Cistercian abbey of Buildwas, near Much Wenlock in Shropshire, is regarded as one of the finest privately owned early medieval Priory houses in England.Dating back to the 12th century, with 16th century and Victorian additions, this Grade 1 property is a sister Priory to the better known Wenlock Priory in Much Wenlock (two miles away). In the 19th century, the Gaskell family transformed the neglected abbot's lodging at Wenlock into a country house cultural salon for such figures as Henry James and Thomas Hardy, the critic John Ruskin as well as being at the centre of the PreRaphaelite and William Morris design movement.