Stanwardine stands in a quiet part of north Shropshire away from any busy roads. Its almost untouched character owes greatly to the house having, in the early eighteenth century, passed into the hands of the Wynns of Wynnstay and, thereafter, been used as a farmhouse. This demotion, which continued when the house later became a part of the Petton Estate, has served to keep the house largely as it was at the start of the Georgian era.

The estate had been a possession of the de Stanwardine family who, in 1307, sold the property to the Hord family of Hordley. Roger Hord was High Sheriff of Shropshire in 1381, and his son, John Hord of Walford (q.v.), produced a daughter, Margaret, who is thought to have been the heiress of the place. She is believed to have married Griffith Kynaston of Stocks near Ellesmere and carried Stanwardine to the Kynastons. By the sixteenth century, Stanwardine was owned by Thomas Kynaston of Walford (living in 1549). He was succeeded for just two years by his son Roger Kynaston of Walford (1536–51). With his death, the estates became divided between Roger’s two sisters: Dorothea (1541–1582/3), who married Ralph Clive and inherited Walford, whilst Stanwardine passed to Jane (1542–1588).

Jane’s husband was Robert Corbet (1523–1593) – second son of Roger Corbet of Moreton Corbet and his wife Anne, daughter of Lord Windsor – and the house remained with the Corbets for three generations after them. Robert Corbet’s nephew, another Robert (d. 1583), was the builder of the great east range at Moreton Corbet and comparisons are often made between the two houses, since both are possessed of shaped gables. There are also similarities to be observed in carved stone elements of both mansions, such as the griffin ornaments and window surround details. Family likenesses are perhaps inevitable and yet Stanwardine is a radically different house in that it is not of one period. Richard Gough (1635–1723), the historian of the nearby parish of Myddle, worked for Robert and Jane Corbet’s grandson, another Robert Corbet (d. 1636) who served as High Sheriff of Shropshire in 1636.