Although the estate remains as a vibrant entity, the mansion house itself – which enjoyed a spectacular setting above the River Severn – was demolished in 1955 by the 6th Earl of Bradford who had bought the estate from Lt-Col Humphrey William Lloyd in 1947.

The Lloyd family, which was descended from Tudor Trevor, Lord of Hereford, was previously seated at Crosemere at Cockshutt. Edward Lloyd was resident at Crosemere in 1535 and had purchased that property from Peter Parcy whose own family had been resident there from at least 1451. The house, rebuilt by Francis Lloyd in the later seventeenth century, still stands, and is a handsome two-storeyed brick property with a hipped roof, which still retains timber mullioned and transomed windows on its first floor and a contemporary ramped staircase.

The first of the family to move to Leaton was Edward Lloyd (d. 1693). The brick house on the Shrewsbury to Baschurch road known as Leaton Hall, which bears the date 1683, was probably built for him. The house appears to be a rebuild of an earlier timber-framed building, a wing of which can still be seen at the rear of the present house. The house retains its seventeenth-century ramped staircase, with baluster-silhouette supports and square newels with cap finials. Leaton Hall ceased to be occupied by the Lloyds within a matter of a few generations and was relegated to farmhouse status in the early nineteenth century.

Edward Lloyd’s great-great-grandson, Francis Lloyd, died without issue in 1814 and his brother, John Arthur Lloyd (1787–1864), then succeeded. In addition to the Shropshire estates, J.A. Lloyd also owned Domgay in Montgomeryshire but, in about 1812–19, he purchased more lands at Leaton – including the Leaton Knolls site – from William Egerton Jeffreys (1773–1847). Jeffreys had been living at what was previously known as Berwick Knowles but appears to have moved, prior to the sale, to Coton Hill and his other property, a farm at Tilley Park.

Initially J.A. Lloyd is said to have altered and improved the existing farmhouse but, as this proved dissatisfactory, he made the decision to build a new house. The building of the new mansion, though, necessitated trust monies being released and this entailed protracted negotiations in 1815 and 1816.