Stourton Hall

Stourton Hall is a large mansion in Kinver, west of Stourbridge. It is given as the residence of Walter Showell, the brewer, in the 1901 census. He died at the property shortly afterwards on 31 Jul 1901.

It would appear that the property soon after became the residence of Walter Showell’s son-in-law’s half brother Thomas Lee Downing. He lived there with his wife Ida Downing until the couple retired to Llandudno around 1930. In the 1911 census it shows that the house has seventeen rooms and five servants

Stourton Hall in 1908 (In the car are Jim Mathews and his father Randle Mathews)

Stourton Hall in 1908 (In the car are Jim Mathews and his father Randle Mathews)

This is the only possible photo of the property from the family collection. It is clearly labelled on the reverse as ‘Stourton Hall’ in the hand of Molly Evans. However, it shows the neighbours Jim Mathews and his father Randle Mathews, who we know lived in neighbouring Stourton Court. It is dated Xmas 1908.

Molly was a close friend of Randle Mathews’ daughter, Edith Mathews  Molly who would have known both properties – one as the house of her good school friend and the other as the home of her husband’s uncle and aunt must have filled out the description later.

A recent discovery in her surviving address book makes her confusion clear. It lists the address of the Mathews family as Stourton Hall – and then crossed out and corrected as Stourton Court. This is now taken as proof that the above picture is of the Court not the Hall. Both properties share some architectural similarities that otherwise makes clear identification difficult.

 

Stourton Hall