Shobdon Court

The Shobdon estate was bought in 1705 by Sir James Bateman, Lord Mayor of London and Governor of the Bank of England, who replaced the Jacobean house with a new Palladian style building.

When John died in 1802 the Viscountcy became extinct, and Shobdon Court passed to a relative, William Hanbury, who was ennobled as Baron Bateman in 1837 after having changed his name to Bateman-Hanbury.

The Shobdon Court house was demolished in 1933, but the service and stable blocks were converted to apartments.

During the Second World War, the remaining court buildings we requisitioned and formed the officers quarters for the then RAF Shobdon.

Simon Jenkins, in his book England's Thousand Best Churches, considers the interior "a complete masterpiece [of] English Rococo".