Willey Park is, without question, the most outstanding early nineteenth-century classical house in Shropshire and a house of major importance as the masterpiece of its architect Lewis Wyatt. Its setting, at the heart of a great landscape park, and its first-rate state of preservation are a credit to generations of careful custodianship that benefits not only this exceptional piece of architecture, but the wider estate that supports it. For miles around Willey, the estate’s ownership is denoted by conservation policies that include scores of recently planted trees maturing in the hedgerows. Well-maintained spruce properties, painted in the estate’s green livery, further demonstrate the benefits of unbroken succession that have been lost on other landholdings to the detriment of the environment and simple aesthetic harmony.

The Arcadian beauties of the park at Willey belie the former industrial significance of this remarkable estate. The property witnessed many of the key events of the industrial revolution which, in turn, contributed income to enable the creation of the house and park that can be seen today. The estate’s proximity to the River Severn – which remained navigable into the first decades of the nineteenth century – and its rich natural mineral resources made the landholding and its owners a key location in Shropshire’s industrial heritage.

The original manor house at Willey was located east of the parish church of St John the Baptist and a portion of this house still remains. It was converted to ancillary offices when Willey Park was built in the early nineteenth century. This was the former seat of Willey’s early owners including, in 1180, Warner of Willey, who served as Sheriff of Shropshire in 1199, and whose descendants continued to hold the estate until the death of Andrew de Willey at the Battle of Evesham in 1265. Andrew’s daughter, Burga, had, by 1283, married Richard of Harley (d. 1316), Sheriff of Shropshire in 1301, and Willey passed to the Harleys. Their grandson, Robert ‘the Simple’, had a daughter and heiress who married Hamond Peshall and the Peshalls’ daughter, Elizabeth, in turn carried the Willey estate to her husband Sir Richard Laken, who was Sheriff of the county in 1415.