Shropshire manor house on market for £1.25 million

Eardington Manor and Coach House in Bridgnorth which dates back to 1873 has been put on the market for £1.25m by current owners Anne and Grant Arnold, who have lived there for the last 10 years.

The house itself is steeped in history, not least due to its past as a boarding school for evacuated children during the Second World War, when it was known as Norman Hurst School.

It even features in a book penned by a former resident.

Patricia Mashiter Cooper, who lived in the manor as a child, wrote the book, chronicling the Second World War from her perspective including her time spent at Eardington manor.

The book is titled Dear Cedric after a friend she met during her time in Eardington.

In the book she describes the manor in great detail including her first impressions of the "terrifying" front door, which Mrs Arnold insists remains unaltered to this day.

Mrs Arnold said her and her husband have only very recently found the book on Amazon and that "more and more history of the manor is coming to light".

She added: "We gets lots of people coming to the manor wanting to look around saying they stayed here during the war. It's all very interesting."

The couple are moving to downsize as their four children head off for university.

The manor itself boasts 12 bedrooms, a detached coach house, stables which will easily house six horses, outbuildings, a walled garden, a swimming pool and a royal commissioned carpet. All the grounds are protected by perimeter security and there are gates for entering the property.

Mrs Arnold said: "It's a very very nice house. We bought it 10 years ago because it fitted our needs and was so so beautiful. We wanted to live in the countryside but with the facilities of a town and that's what Eardington manor gives us."

She said: "Obviously the original property had 500 acres of grounds with the farmst, but slowly over time this has been sold off but the manor has been retained.

"We've done a lot of work to renovate the property and restore it to how it used to look as obviously 70s and 80s styles weren't great.

"It has taken us a long time but its all been done by hand and with the greatest of care.

"I've even made sure to leave the marks on some of the bedroom walls where the children at the boarding school used to play on their metal beds."

It is easy to get bogged down in the sheer beauty of the million pound manor, but Mrs Arnold was keen to point out just what the region offered.

She said: "Eardington is a lovely little village, it isn't all old people and it isn't all young people – it's a great mix. It has a lovely small village hall with plenty of activities going on.

"The manor itself has nine schools within a 10 to 15 mile radius with them all running bus services either from Eardington or Bridgnorth."

These are Moffats School, Wrekin College, Shrewsbury School, Heath Fields Primary School, Tettenhall College, The Drive, The Knoll, St Dominics High School for Girls and Birchfield.

Mrs Arnold added: "As well as the schools there's also fantastic a medical centre that helped my step mother when she was suffering from cancer. All the specialists come to the centre so there's no need to travel to Wolverhampton, Shrewsbury or further afield."

"There's also a PGA golf course up the road owned by K K Downing from Judas Priest, a sailing club in Chelmarsh with a brand new club house and the Severn Valley Railway."

The asking price stands at £1.25m, having recently come down £100,00 .

* For details of Eardington Manor visit Berriman Eaton at berrimaneaton.co.uk