About our home

The Old House has been lovingly restored by my parents over 15 years. It is situated in the heart of Medieval Shrewsbury
Our stunning home also is a luxury guest house offering 3 luxury bedroom suites. Built in the 14th century, kings and queens of England have stayed in the house. The house benefits from a substantial private garden with stunning views of the town from our private decking terrace. We are right in the centre of Shrewsbury so walking distance to all the best restaurants and pubs in town. Sky TV and en-suite in most bedrooms. As well as all the luxuries that a modern house brings the Old House features fine artworks, original tapestries and amazing open fire places. The house consists of large kitchen, dining room, library, long room, 2 cellars, downstairs bathrooms, 7 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms. 5 minutes walk to the train station and three hours from London.
The Old House in Dogpole sits on an original Anglo-Saxon plot leading down to the River Severn. After the Norman Conquest in 1066, Shrewsbury was fortified and the town wall cut through the garden, but the plot remained intact. The house was rebuilt as a timber framed Tudor mansion around two massive brick chimneys in the late 1490s and retains much of this original character.
The house had strong connections with Catherine of Aragon. She married Arthur (brother of Henry VIII) at nearby Ludlow Castle in South Shropshire where she finally returned after her divorce from her later marriage to Henry VIII. Members of the Rocke family were courtiers of Catherine and also owners of The Old House, and there is a tradition that Mary Tudor stayed in the house on her way to visit her mother. In the 1840s, when repairs were being made to panelling, the remains of an original wall mural dating back to the 1480s were discovered. The house features wooden panels painted with Pomegranate motifs of Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIIIs Tudor Rose and Coat of Arms. This is almost certainly the remains of an altarpiece secretly built during protestant persecution.
Other interesting features in the house are a further large fireplace inlaid with tulips, showing the influence of the Dutch Tulip craze of the early 17th century. There are many stained glass panels rescued from German churches destroyed in the reformation. A new, fashionable façade was erected on the garden side of the house in 1755, but fortunately it seems to have been used as a town and family house, so that the changes have not been at the expense of the original features.
The Peale family owned the house from the middle of the 19th century until the 1960s. Their wolf head finial is on the hall banister entwined with the remains of an iron light fitting from the first days of electricity. Their motto Veritas Omnia Vincit (Truth conquers all) also remains in the glass of the house. On the death of Miss Peale the house passed to the Shrewsbury Civic Society until it returned to being the family house of the present owners, Mary & Tony Walters & family. The current owners are very conscious of the privilege and responsibility of living in such a historic house. While furnishing and decorating the house, every care has been taken to preserve all the original features.
See our guest suites website from more about the house - http://www.theoldhousesuites.com
See more about Shrewsbury - http://www.virtual-shropshire.co.uk/