The Moated site on The Banks

In earlier times The Isle was known as Rosela, which was changed to Rossall in or around 1212. The descendants of Domesday Albert took the name of the place as their surname. The Rossalls built a stronghold on The Banks well placed beside the river to resist attack. The remains of the rampart and moat, together with a possible motte and fishpond still exist. Outside of the moat stood Rossall Chapel, probably made of timber and wattle on a stone foundation.

The first incumbent is thought to have been appointed in 1240 and the last chaplain was instituted in 1444. William de Appleby, appointed in 1333, "died about Micaelmas 1349 of the pestilence" so The Isle was evidently visited by the Black Death, which killed over a third of the country's population. The chapel itself was supposed to have been burnt to the ground by a woman to prevent it becoming a Protestant Church at the Reformation. The site is now marked by an engraved stone and some Yew trees. As it is consecrated ground, the ashes of deceased members of the family are now scattered there.

The Old Isle house replaced the one within the moat. The original southern block was built in about 1450 and was described as a medieval hall, but it has been altered and enlarged on many occasions. Richard Sandford first came here in around 1560 when it was described as "mean and base". Recently part of the roof fell down and revealed a 'Cock Loft' with several secret rooms and priest holes. The house is unoccupied at present, but the roof is kept in good repair.

The present Isle House was built in about 1680. Humphrey Sandford VI bought it, the Pool and 176 acres of land from a Mr. Stanier in 1749 for £3,276. He also extended the house at both ends and an engraved stone set into a wall commemorates the event, for all this expense he had to raise a mortgage of £1,260.

Old Isle House.  1430

The Isle House

In 1810 Folliot and Isabella Sandford moved out of The Isle House and settled in Bath and it was let to various tenants until 1836 when their son Humphrey VII became the tenant, when the estate became his though inheritance in 1841. As soon as Humphrey moved in, he began making several alterations to the house, enlarging the Oak Parlour and various rooms upstairs by removing partitions and re-roofing the East Side of the house. He also built a new barn at The Isle Park and he states in his diary; "the coal for burning the bricks was brought by my team from Shrewsbury along the Baschurch Road and through the River Severn into The Isle Park by a road made in June last by my orders and which team of mine is the only team which has yet drawn coal through the river Severn".

Coracles have been used on The Severn since Roman times and is the ideal craft for poaching, as it is portable and cheap to produce. During economic depressions many men with hungry families turned to poaching. Small groups of men would walk from Shrewsbury to Montford Bridge by night carrying their coracles on their backs: they would then drift slowly downstream fishing on the way. This was becoming too successful, so to stop them, some local landowners equipped a unit of troops with a rowing boat, but they were hugely unsuccessful: eventually they realised that the poachers escaped by carrying their coracles across the neck of The Isle by The Isle Grange Farm which immediately put five miles of river between them and the pursuing boat.

In 1902, Humphrey X pulled down the conservatory and built the New Room as a ballroom for his daughter Bessie, and the South Shropshire Hunt Ball has been held here for the last two years (1988-9).

Electricity was not installed until about 1940; until then smelly acetylene gas was used in the downstairs rooms and one had to take candles upstairs to bed. The only form of heating in those days was a log fire in the Oak Parlour and the house was very cold during the winter months.

The outside loo, which was used by the menfolk, was a three holer earth-closet and on the wall above each hole were the coat of arms so that one really did feel enthroned! When we moved back to The Isle in 1981 we applied for a government grant to repair the house. The Historic Building Council would not give us one (despite The Isle House being a Grade II Listed building), but, much to our surprise, allocated to do up the loo. A new roof and floor were built but the money was withheld until I had personally reconstructed the seat with appropriate holes of differing size.

After the last war, the house was let as a hotel and Humphrey XI (my father) lived in a caravan under an oak tree on The Banks (thus continuing the occupation from the Iron Age through to present) for over twenty years. The hotel had a reputation for rowdy parties and the bar and dance floor has become notorious and on at least one occasion the police had to be called out when an entertainer had the tyres of his Rolls-Royce let down.

In 1958 the house and Home Farm were let, but this proved to be a complete disaster and the house and surrounds were let to fall into a dilapidated state; the house roof leaked so badly that water poured down onto the ground floor and the timbers had not only wet rot, but dry rot and death watch beetle. The tenants were removed by way of an Agricultural Land Tribunal on the grounds of bad husbandry; we took possession in 1979. It took two years to do up the house and re-roof it; the main alterations to the kitchen, which was enlarged by knocking down the dividing, wall to the scullery, and too the utility room where several small rooms were made into one. New electric's, plumbing and central heating were installed. Some of the farm buildings where completely beyond repair and were bulldozed and buried. The garden also has been altered considerably and about ten trailer loads of topsoil were spread in the flower garden to build up the borders, and a bulldozer removed many dead old trees and shrubs. New ornamentals were planted, and the walled kitchen garden (Old Isle House) was cleared of thistles, nettles and brambles and replanted with fruit trees and vegetables.

The farming partnership took over The Isle Park Farm from the previous owners in 1979 and purchased Home Farm two years later. First drainage systems were installed where necessary, ditches were cleared, hedges cut and the land cleaned. Most of the buildings were in such poor repair that they could not be used and so the farm became mainly arable with a rotation of winter wheat, winter barley, potatoes or sugar beet the root crops being irrigated by the River Severn. Some of the fields are liable to flooding so they remain in grass to be grazed by cattle and sheep. We also keep a number of horses for hunting and breeding. It has all been very hard work but I have managed to fulfil one of my ambitions in life to live and farm at the home where our family have lived for the past 440 years.