Type Country house Built c. 1725 Client Thomas Fitzherbert | Current tenants Barons Stafford Reference no. 1038991 Designated as world heritage site 10 January 1953 | |
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Location Swynnerton, Staffordshire Similar Blithfield Hall, Hilton Hall, Ingestre Hall, Chillington Hall, Coronation Chair | ||
Swynnerton Hall is an 18th-century country mansion house, the home of Lord Stafford, situated at Swynnerton near Stone, Staffordshire. It is a Grade I listed building.
The manor of Swynnerton was owned by the eponymous family for several centuries before it came to the Fitzherberts when William Fitzherbert, third son of Sir Anthony Fitzherbert of Norbury Hall, married Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of Humphrey Swynnerton, in 1562.
The Fitzherberts, a staunchly Catholic family, were Royalist sympathisers during the English Civil War and the house was irreparably damaged by the Parliamentarian forces.
The Norbury and Swynnerton estates were united when in 1649 John Fitzherbert of Norbury bequeathed his estate to his cousin William Fitzherbert of Swynnerton.
The manor was rebuilt in about 1729 to an impressive Georgian style design by architect Francis Smith of Warwick of three storeys and a nine bayed frontage.
A private family chapel was built adjacent to the Hall by Gilbert Blount in about 1868. The chapel has Grade II* listed status.
Francis Fitzherbert inherited the title Baron Stafford on the death of his maternal uncle, Fitzherbert Stafford Jerningham of Costessey Hall, Norfolk in 1913.
Thomas Fitzherbert of Swynnerton was a leading Jesuit of his day. Mrs Fitzherbert, the mistress/wife of the future George IV, was the widow of a later Thomas Fitzherbert of Swynnerton.
As of 2009, Lord Stafford, former High Sheriff of Staffordshire, still resides at the Hall and farms the 3,000-acre (1,200 ha) estate.