Summary
Golding Hall stands handsomely atop its terraced gardens, enjoying panoramic views of the rolling country to the south of Shrewsbury. At first glance, the red brick house with its north-front’s twin gabled wings and recessed centre appears to be all of one date. It is, in fact, the result of several rebuildings, the earliest parts being the centre range and east wing, which retain sandstone cellars and the remains of mullioned windows that appear to be survivors of a late sixteenth-century house of stone. This was probably the house that would have been known to Robert Hennage who acquired this part of the Golding property in 1599, the place having hitherto – from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century – followed the descent of the Acton Burnell manor (q.v.).
Hennage was not a long-term owner and he sold the house and its lands to George Langley (d. 1615) in 1606. Langley, who was the second son of John Langley of The Amies near Broseley, had apparently already been leasing at least a part of the property from 1598. Twice married, he was ultimately succeeded by Edward (1606–1665), his eldest son by his second wife, Anne, daughter of James Jukes of Downton, Upton Magna. Anne, though, had ownership of the property through her widowhood until her death.
Edward Langley married Margaret, daughter of Thomas Atkyns of Little Ryton, and, after succeeding to Golding, he effected a rebuilding of the house. This was as a closestudded and jettied timber-framed house, with a lobby entry and two main rooms with a central chimney stack that continues down into the cellar. The evidence of this house is still to be seen inside the centre range and east wing, where the framing is now exposed in a number of areas, whilst dendro-dating has confirmed a felling date for the timber of 1660.
Edward and Margaret Langley’s eldest son, George (d. 1663), predeceased his father, and so Golding was inherited, at Edward’s death, by their second son, Thomas Langley (1636–1694). Thomas was a Barrister of the Inner Temple and was admitted as a Burgess of Shrewsbury in 1670. He married Catherine, the daughter of Colonel the Hon. Christopher Roper, second son of Viscount Baltinglass, and was responsible for the west wing of the house, which bears a date stone containing his initials and the date 1668 on its southern gable.
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- The Country Houses of Shropshire , pp. 268 - 269Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2021