Apley Park Shoot SHROPSHIRE
The Apley Park Estate, near Bridgnorth in Shropshire, sits in 8,500 acres of prime agricultural land and stunning parkland intersected by the River Severn. Apley Hall is home to Gavin Hamilton, Lord Hamilton of Dalzell, who is the fifth generation to own the estate. Gavin moved here with his family in 2006 when he inherited the title, but his ancestors very nearly didn’t end up at Apley at all. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were rumoured to be interested in buying the estate, but eventually decided against it because of the main road that ran through it and decided to purchase Sandringham in Norfolk instead. William Orme Foster, an ancestor to Gavin and whose family had made their fortune in ironworks and blast furnaces in Stourbridge, bought the estate instead and set about turning it into a model of modern agriculture.
Another reason Gavin and his family might never have ended up at Apley is rather more unsettling. Apparently, Adolf Hitler had earmarked the estate for himself once he
