Adcote is entirely a creation of the late Victorian era, and a splendid credit to its author, Richard Norman Shaw (1831–1912) who, in 1876, designed mansion, stables and a pair of lodges, setting them down in a freshly landscaped park, with wide views to the Welsh hills.

In Tudor times, Adcote’s site had been a part of the Arundel landholdings, later passing to the Cravens and then to the Herbert Earls of Powis. The Herberts alienated the property, but it formed a part of lands acquired by Robert Clive 1st Lord Clive, ultimately passing to the descendants of his son Edward, who was created 1st Earl of Powis of the third creation. Adcote Hall was occupied by James Payne in 1813–1836 and the property was eventually sold by the 3rd Earl of Powis in 1849/50 to a Director of the Shropshire Bank, Henry Dickenson of Coalbrookdale. Dickenson’s wife was Deborah Darby, the sister-in-law of Shaw’s client to whom Dickenson duly sold the property. Dickenson at first purchased 1,012 acres, but he added further purchases, in 1863 and 1865, which were sold to Rebecca Darby (1820–1909), in 1868.

Rebecca Darby was the widow of Alfred Darby (d. 1852), of the family of Coalbrookdale ironmasters, whilst Mrs Darby’s own family, the Christies, were hatters and towel manufacturers. The decision of a 56-year-old widow to build a new seat on a new site shows both determination and optimism, creating a family home which could also house two of her brothers, Alexander and Edmund Christie – known as ‘Uncle Mog’ and ‘Uncle Teddy’. For the brothers, in particular, the house provided a worthy setting for their collections of eighteenth-century French and English furniture, Chinese ceramics and objects d’art.

Shaw’s response to the commission was a house built with limestone from the estate, around the core of an existing square brick farmhouse. The designs date to October 1875 and they were exhibited at the 1879 Royal Academy when the building was already in the course of construction. It had been started in 1876 and was finally completed in 1881 due to Shaw’s illness and delays on the part of the decorator, J. Aldam Heaton. The builders were Hale & Son of Salisbury, a company which had already executed John Dando Sedding’s plans for St Clement’s Church Bournemouth on commission from Edmund Christie.