The History of The Cowshed

The Cowshed is on the Bitterley Court Estate. Formerly The Cowshed was the milking centre and at its peak had space for 20 cows from the herd of 85 cattle. When Colonel Wheeler stopped farming The Cowshed became a store room and has recently been converted into a Luxury Holiday Cottage.

The Wheeler family have lived at Bitterley Court for five generations and have lived in the area since the 16th Century. The early history of Bitterley Court is not known. It is possible that there was a dwelling on the site in the 900s. This would have been a barn or hall, to which a screens passage and solar wing would at some stage have been added. By about 1655 the Walcots and Littleton family jointly bought the house.

In about 1766 the house was sold to the senior branch of the Walcots when they sold Walcot Hall to Clive of India. At this time the house was modernised by Thomas Farnolls Pritchard, a local architect who did a lot of work in Shropshire including designing the first Iron Bridge. Bitterley Court has been listed Grade II*.

The Walcot family were staunch Royalists. Papers that were once at Bitterley Court included requests for loans from Charles I. William Walcot was Charles I's page when he was beheaded and Charles gave half his cloak to each of his two pages on the scaffold. William Walcot's half was kept at Bitterley Court for many years with the Royal bloodstains preserved for posterity. Members of the Walcot family still visit Bitterley from all over the world and one of these still has the cloak!

In the village there is a cockpit, one of only two in the county. A heritage sign suggests this was the location of Park Hall, possibly home to Catherine Parr, last wife of Henry VIII. Henry VIII's elder brother. Prince Arthur supposedly has his heart buried in the church in Ludlow. The rest of his body is buried at Worcester Cathedral (30 miles away). In Hereford Cathedral (30 miles away) there is the original Mappa Mundi and in the centre of this is the Clee Hill
View of Clee Hill from The Cowshed
which looks down upon The Cowshed