Not to be confused with the seat of the More family near Bishop’s Castle, Linley Hall near Broseley was long the seat of the Lacon family, who held the property from the late sixteenth century until the early nineteenth century. Their house remains largely untouched since the late eighteenth century, when the south-facing entrance front was added to the earlier house.

In the late fifteenth century, Linley had become a possession of the Talbot family and descended from them to William Powlett who, in 1581, sold the estate to Rowland Lacon, beginning the long association with that family. The Lacons were a recusant family and Linley Hall had a chapel located in the north-facing attic, the rubble stone gable of which can still be seen with a partially filled, pointed-headed window marking its location. As with many Catholic landowners, the staff at Linley were also largely of the same faith and in the eighteenth century a Douai priest on the English mission officiated in the family’s chapel. Intriguingly, the now-redundant Anglican Church of St Leonard, which stands on the former north drive to Linley Hall, contains a memorial slab in its blocked northern doorway that is inscribed to Francis Anderton (d. 1779) and George Johnson (d. 1803) - both monks from Douai.

Internally, in the northern section of the house, ceiling beams appear to date from the Elizabethan era and the walls throughout are largely of stone. In the eighteenth century, a three-bay south front was created, this being extended prior to 1830, when there seems to have been a comprehensive campaign of rebuilding which saw the four-bay, three-storey east front encased in brick and given a flat parapet. The south front, after these works, became a smart classical elevation of two storeys with the centre three bays given a pediment set with tripartite window.

Internally, the staircase, which appears to occupy the site of the great hall, was rebuilt in the early nineteenth century, probably in tandem with the external works, and it now has a balustrade composed of turned brass spindles, perhaps inspired by the grander staircases created by Lewis Wyatt at nearby Willey Park (q.v.).

There had been a relatively swift succession of Lacon family heads in the early nineteenth century, with the death of Richard Lacon in 1803, followed just eleven years later by his brother, Walter, in 1814.