Moor Park Charitable Trust Ltd   Moor Park Charitable Trust Ltd Moor Park Charitable Trust Ltd

Moor Park represents continuity for the local community. Although physically midway between the village of Richards Castle and Ludlow, the house and its families are an integral part of the village: the Salweys and one member of the Inchiquin family still live in the parish. While it is over 60 years since the house has fulfilled the role of the local manor, it still symbolises stability and permanence, quintessential features of the English rural community which are increasingly under threat from the pace of modern life.The Salweys continued to live at Moor Park until the 1870s when the greater part of the estate, including the main house, was sold. In 1861, the then Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, visited Moor Park with a view to buying it as his country estate. He eventually chose Sandringham because of its proximity to London and, reputedly, greater number of pheasants! In the early 1850s, the house was let for a year to an American family from Boston and the daughter subsequently wrote an intriguing account of their visit describing Victorian life in rural England - from an outsider's point of view.Major Johnston Foster bought the estate in 1874 and proceeded to construct a new building around the Queen Anne house. The influences of key fashions of the day, including William Morris, de Morgan and the architect Norman Shaw, can still be seen but the original Queen Anne style was largely retained. Norman Shaw is reputed to have designed the lodge at the main gate and was certainly engaged to build the 'new church' in Richard's Castle (1892) as a memorial to Major Foster.The Fosters' eldest daughter married a young Irish nobleman, later Lord Inchiquin. His family were the hereditary Kings of Munster and reputedly descended from Brian Boru. The wedding was a very grand affair and incorporated the whole village. The festivities lasted for four days! The Inchiquins did not live regularly at Moor Park and in 1939 moved permanently to Ireland. During the war, the house became Lancing College which had been evacuated from Sussex, and thus began Moor Park's conversion to a school. A famous pupil of Lancing was Tom Sharpe. His novel 'Blott on the Landscape' is loosely based on Moor Park and the Foster family.