Delbury is an unexpectedly suave mid eighteenth-century house set in a hollow overlooking its lake, within its oak-studded park in the Corvedale. Its ancillary buildings and stables form a handsome and effective rustic foil to the formality of the house itself, whilst the passing of time is marked by the chimes of the stables clock, made in 1753 by William Blakeway of Rushbury. Although the whole appears an eighteenth-century set-piece, Delbury owes a good deal to the present owner who not only created the lake in 1984, but has also undertaken a large-scale restoration of the house and outbuildings, reinventing the latter as a wedding and conference venue which helps to sustain the place.

It was during the excavation of the lake that substantial remains of structural timbers came to light, suggesting that this might have been the site of the earlier, timber-framed house. This building was quite conceivably retained until the completion of the present house in the eighteenth century and it would, presumably, have been the original home of the Baldwyn family, who had been seated at Delbury and Diddlebury from the fourteenth century. In 1891, though, Leach also suggested that a section of the house was incorporated into the structure of the present house, being part of the rear right-hand wing.

The original date of the Baldwyn family’s presence at Delbury is uncertain, although William Baldwyn (d. 1544) was certainly living there, when he held the mansion house and 250 acres. He died without issue and was succeeded by his brother Richard, the supposed builder of Elsich (q.v.).

Richard Baldwyn’s younger son, William seems to have succeeded to the Elsich property, whilst the Delbury lands went to the elder son, Thomas (d. 1614) who acted as a guard of Mary Queen of Scots under the Earl of Shrewsbury and who was later imprisoned in the Beauchamp Tower at the Tower of London where graffiti by him is still extant.

Thomas Baldwyn was succeeded in occupation by his younger son, Richard (d. 1639) who, although married to Anne Rickards, died without issue. At his death, an inventory was made of the house which gives an indication of the interiors, including reference to a ‘Painted Chamber’, ‘Gallery Chamber’ and to a wainscotted ‘Parlour’.