Acton Burnell, Shrewsbury, England

Robert Burnell, later bishop of Bath and Wells and Chancellor of England, was lord of the manor by 1269.  In 1270 Burnell imparked 70 acres (28 hectares) from 'Cumbes wood', to which 60 acres (24 hectares) was added in 1280.  By 1290 the park had three deer leaps and Burnell had been granted the right of free warren.  The park was walled, at least to the south, by 1379.

The park survived into the post medieval period.  John Rocque's map of Shropshire from about 1752 shows that the park was largely wooded.  It extended south to the Kealey-Chruch Preen road and its western boundary lay east of Langley Hall.  Between 1750 and 1799 various garden features were added to the park including the grotto, the gate lodge and the Sham Castle.

By 1808 Robert Baugh's map of Shropshire shows that the park had been reduced in size by about half (Trinder: 1983).  Its new southern boundary was that of the 1888 Ordnance Survey map.  To the north it had geen extended up to the Acton Burnell-Acton Pigott road.  It is believed that this extension to the north followed the rebuilding of Acton Burnell hall shortly before 1805. 

In the late 19th century the park was about 280 acres (112 hectares) and had 180 fallow deer.  Timber included oak, chestnut, yew birch and elm (Whitaker: 1982, 126).

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

In the Middle Ages Acton Burnell belonged to the Burnells, one of whom, Robert Burnell (died 1292), Bishop of Bath and Wells and Lord Chancellor, rose to national prominence in the late 13th century. In the 1270s and 1280s he rebuilt the church and manor house in an advanced architectural style and created a deer park on the hill which rises behind them. The manor later passed to the Lovells, from whom it was forfeited to the Crown in 1485. In 1617 it was bought by Humphry Lee of Langley Hall, whose granddaughter, Mary, married Sir Edward Smythe of Eshe Hall (Durham); it was through her the Smythes acquired Acton Burnell. Smythe, a recusant who in 1660 was created a baronet, is known to have been living at Acton Burnell in 1662, although by 1672 he had removed to Langley. Thenceforward the Smythes were normally seated at Acton Burnell, the Hall being rebuilt in the 1750s by a subsequent Sir Edward (died 1784) who later, in the last years of his life, improved and embellished the landscape park. The Smythes sold the Hall, which became a school, in 1939, and much of the rest of the property in 1949. The park however was retained, and remains (1998) in private hands. In 1973 the Hall was sold to its owner in the late 1990s, Concord College.