Keepers Lodge

ACTON BURNELL C.P. ACTON BURNELL PARK SJ 50 SW 6/19 Keepers Lodge 9.7.85 - II* Shown on O.S. map as Sham Castle. Prospect tower. 1779-80, by Samuel Scoltock. Cement rendered over red brick on rubble plinth, flat roof. Triangular plan with circular corner towers. Gothick style. 2 storeys. Stone coped battlemented parapet; 2 brick stacks to south-west tower. First-floor arched windows with Y-tracery and hoodmoulds with moulded stops. 3-window front to north- west, ground floor square windows with flat arches; door to right in centre. Interior: first-floor room has enriched plaster wall decoration consisting of swags, drops, roundels with wreaths and trophies, oval plaques with decorative surrounds, enriched plaster cornice with shell decoration, flat ceiling with surviving plaster showing evidence of former decoration, and moulded window architraves; the south-east tower formerly contained a staircase which is said to have been removed soon after the 1939-45 war, a dado rail still marks its course on the wall; a late C18 fireplace formerly in the first-floor room is now said to be in a house in the village. Samuel Scoltock (c.1739-1819) was a brick- layer by trade and with Edward Massey jointly designed Millington's Hospital in Shrewsbury; he is buried in Shrewsbury Abbey. Burnell/ Smythe papers, Shropshire Records Office; Colvin, p.724.

Listing NGR: SJ5443601591