Discover How A Boarding School Was Transformed Into A Beautiful Family Home

Top tip: if you’re planning to renovate a historic country manor, best to document your journey on Instagram. Fortunately, when Catherine Halliday-Taylor set out to restore the historic Oakhurst Hall to its former glory, her husband Alan advised her to do just that.

Though @oakhurst_hall_renovations started with zero followers, it seems the appetite for home renovation content is as insatiable as ever, with numbers now grown to nearly 60,000. And it paid off. ‘We got amazing deals on the chandeliers, the wood, carpets, fires, cinema stuff, everything,’ says Catherine on the collaboration opportunties created through social media. ‘It really did help. It was crazy: discounts on paint; the mural in the dining room was free.’ 

Inside Oakhurst Hall

Whilst Oakhurst Hall started life as a family home – having been built for the Venables family in 1854 – like so many manor houses, it was soon re-used and recycled. During the Second World War it was leased to an engine manufacturer. Then in 1946 it was sold to Shropshire County Council, who transformed it into a boarding house for military family girls at Oswestry Girls’ High School (where the computer-software pioneer and Kindertransport refugee Dame Vera Stephanie Shirley studied). In 1986, it was then converted again, with the smaller wing, where Catherine’s mother now lives, returned back into a private residence, while the main hall was made into a commercial space.

Having gone through so many iterations, it was in a rather dire state. The residential space, at least, was habitable; all it needed was some love, decoration and personality. The commercial side was a different story. ‘It was all air filtration systems and lino floors and conveyor belts and things like that […] It had fluorescent lighting and was painted the most hideous colours,’ says Catherine. The shades spanned everything from luminous pinks to electric blues. ‘They must have literally got a job lot on the last load of non-selling paints.’

The main hall was a bright yellow. And though Catherine believes Downing Street to be done up in the same shade, she thinks it unlikely the PM’s walls are covered in mould like hers once were. The kitchen (a fluorescent orange) also boasted massive central heating pipes, while the main hall lacked any heating at all. ‘It was just soulless, absolutely soulless.’

Thankfully, Oakhurst Hall was just the renovation project Catherine had been looking for. Keen to escape the edges of London (Epsom to be precise) just as her boys were approaching GCSE age, she knew she wanted to set up base in the countryside. ‘We were looking to slow things down. We wanted to get the boys outside a lot more, off the gaming and away from TV.’

With no specific location in mind, after many hours online, she stumbled across Oakhurst Hall. Though further north than planned, its location in Oswestry, Shropshire just so happened to be where her husband nearly went to school, making it the perfect spot to educate her sons. She fell in love with Oakhurst Hall and its environs at first sight when visiting friends in a nearby town. ‘It’s really pretty. It’s a lovely little market town, and it’s growing,’ she says of the area. ‘It’s really up and coming.’

Pleasantly surprised by the non-London price tag, soon she, her husband, their sons, her mother and the schnauzers were en course for the country. 

Catherine has always renovated, but never before had she worked on a project of this scale. Having purchased the property in September 2019, soon a Covid-shaped spanner hit the works. ‘Everything changed for us quite dramatically. My husband’s work dried up, so that got really tough. That’s when we decided, let’s see what we can do ourselves.’ Forced to think outside the box, the financial constraints on their six-year renovation project turned tighter, but with a can-do DIY attitude they got through without any major setbacks – bar the cellar’s water pipe bursting when they moved in, leaving them without any water for the first few days.  

Where the interiors were questionable, the bones of the house, and its views, were promising. As such, they didn’t need to do any structural work. The home was also then unlisted, leaving them free from over-bearing planning constraints.

As well as her Instagram, in 2022 Catherine was invited on the Channel 4 TV show Renovation Nation, through which she was able to visit the archives and discover the home’s original floor plans, which she has left unchanged. She discovered her broom room was once a knife room, there used to be a butler’s pantry, a lady’s maid room and a silver store (turned laundry room). The show also had ‘Old Oakies’ (former boarders) invited to see how the dormitory was transformed into a bedroom and the old school dining room into a kitchen/breakfast room. 

As Catherine explains, the boring, though most crucial bit, came first: the lighting and the heating. Then it was onto the interiors. ‘I’ve always loved interiors and I’ve always loved to have a go.’ Catherine took on the painting, decorating, reupholstering, tiling and beading. Alan tackled fireplaces, painted ceilings (‘I don’t do ceilings’) and planted outside, while the boys hand-stripped wallpaper and cleared the garden.

Unlike the property’s last owners, Catherine isn’t a ‘big, bright, whacky person’: ‘I don’t like big, multicoloured floral papers; I’ve seen them in period properties and they look stunning but I’m not very good at mix and matching.’ As part of their money-saving bid, Catherine worked with local joiners to build bespoke products designed by her. Having sorted the main living spaces before they moved in, they continued to add more as they became familiar more with the space.

Despite these extensive renovations, many of the home’s historical features still remain. From the 4m ground floor ceilings, period cornicing and marble fireplace, to the original windows, working shutters, high skirtings, tall front doors and huge bay windows. ‘All the original core features of a period property are still there, it’s just that they were hidden because they weren’t loved,’ says Catherine. ‘But there’s history all the way around. The staircase is stunning. It’s a huge, sweeping staircase. You can just imagine Harriet Venables walking down in her organza gowns.’

Catherine’s favourite feature? Where the sitting room leads into the dining room via sliding pocket doors. ‘The mural in the dining room is stunning too,’ she says. ‘The sunlight comes in at every angle and it just lights up. It’s so calming.’ The entrance hall is also a strong contender. ‘It’s just quite wowie. I do love it. I love doing all the displays and making everything look beautiful.’

Outside, was a different story. The grounds had been tarmaced-over into a massive car park by the property’s former business owners. Today, that car park has been transformed into seven acres of grounds, including a wrap-around terrace with an outdoor kitchen and plenty of seating, beautiful topiaries, stone walling, lavender bushes, a turning circle, Cotswold stone drive and ‘’I can’t tell you how many hydrangeas, hundreds and hundreds of Annabelle hydrangeas’. Plus there’s two golf holes, an orchard and a lake.

‘Everything’s finished. It’s beautiful,’ says Catherine, reflecting on her labour of love. But with eight bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a cinema, craft room, drawing room, games room, snug, two dining rooms, plus three sons flying the nest sooner than planned, the space has outgrown Catherine and her family. ‘It needs to hear laughter and kids walking around,’ she says of the home.

Though she plans to host at least a few more parties before finally forced to part, she predicts that Oakhurst Hall will take quite a while to sell. ‘It’s not going to be a five-minute fix. It’s quite a specific kind of property. How many people want to live in 12,000 sqft? It doesn’t feel like that though,’ she insists. ‘Even though it’s so big, it feels cosy, warm and homely.’

On the market for £3m. Find out more at search.savills.com