Couple’s dream to transform Shropshire stately home into wedding venue well on way
A stately house once used as a care home is being touched up in preparation for its opening as a wedding and events venue later this year.
Standon Hall, a Grade II listed home at Standon, near Eccleshall and Loggerheads, had been unused since March 2016 until new owners Joanne and Andriy Magiy took on the challenge of re-purposing it.
They bought the hall for a sum in the region of £1.2 million last year before it was due to feature in a public auction, and they are intent on hosting weddings as well as other events in the grounds of the stately home.
Mrs Magiy said: "I own a florist so I've been in the wedding industry for about eight years.
"The biggest job at the moment is taking out the asbestos. They have been doing it for about three weeks, they will probably be there until mid-September.
"Structurally the building is sound, it's just cosmetically there is some work to do.
"We're hoping it will be ready around November this year so that's really exciting."
Once the building is ready, the couple hope to host weddings as well as corporate and community events.
Ghosts
Mrs Magiy said the house has already attracted interest from car dealerships, and that it could also host Christmas markets or school plays.
Last year, residents of the nearby villages worried that the then-empty house would be turned into a haunted house after ghost-hunting evenings were organised in the grounds.
It was due to go to auction on October 25, before the Magiys stepped in.
Stafford borough councillor for Eccleshall Peter Jones was one of many councillors invited to look around Standon Hall and see the ongoing work.
He said: "I'm a great believer in keeping historic buildings up and running and in use, it should be welcomed.
"We enjoyed it, it was a nice visit. We were impressed and they looked after us well.
"It's sad when places like that fall into disrepair and it does cost a ton of money to bring them back into use.
"We didn't see any ghosts either.
The hall was built in the early 20th Century for Sir Thomas Anderton Salt, a director of the North Staffordshire Railway company, but its use as a family home was short-lived, as it was sold to Staffordshire County Council in 1925 for hospital use.
It was used as a nursing home until March 2016, when it closed due to a lack of funding.
