The Shropshire boarding school that's lived multiple lives, transformed into a wonderful country house with the coolest cellar we've seen in years
Oakhurst Hall, just outside Oswestry, is a house that's lived many lives — but it's never looked better than it does now.
Like many large Victorian mansions, Oakhurst Hall, a mile from the market town of Oswestry in Shropshire, has had various incarnations during its 170-year history. And another is shortly to begin, as it’s for sale via Savills at £3 million.
This is eight-bedroom house, which spans some 12,000sq ft and stands in about seven acres, is quite an amazing place. There are multiple kitchens, dining rooms, drawing rooms, a craft room, a cinema, snug, and an internal courtyard.
There's also a cellar — and what a cellar it is, with mood lighting, glorious arches, a bar, and a pool table. It's like having a New York dive bar transplanted into a country house in the Welsh Borders. It is — and there's no better word — very cool indeed.
And that's just downstairs. The bedrooms are huge: the main suite is 26' x 24', with a bay window, a separate dressing room that's 20' by 16' just on its own, and an en-suite bathroom.
It wasn't always this way, though.
Built for the Venables family in 1854, it was leased by an engine manufacturer during the Second World War and then became a boarding house for Oswestry Girls’ High School, where the computer-software pioneer and Kindertransport refugee Dame Vera Stephanie Shirley studied. In the mid 1980s, the house was converted into a private residence with commercial premises.
Put up for sale in 2019, the house caught the eye of Catherine and Alan Halliday-Taylor, who moved from Surrey with their three sons. Then the pandemic struck and they decided to embark on a renovation project.
In 2022, the house featured on Channel 4’s Renovation Nation in which Mrs Halliday-Taylor invited ‘Old Oakies’ back to see how a dormitory had been turned into the main bedroom and the school dining room into a kitchen/breakfast room.
Now, though, it's time for the family to move on.
‘Our children have flown the nest sooner than planned and the hall is looking for its next family,’ says Mrs Halliday-Taylor.
Oakhurst Hall is on the market for £3 million through Savills — see more details.
