Kingston House, Shrewsbury
building in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, UK
Kingston House is a building in St Alkmund's Place, Shrewsbury. It is a Grade II listed building.
History
The house was built to a timber-frame design and completed in 1679. It has an unusual tower with a pyramid roof. It became a training facility for "friendless girls in moral danger" in 1872, founded by local vicar the Revd Leopold Wightman and his wife Julia, the well-known temperance campaigner. The building went on to become the headquarters of the Shropshire Regiment of Yeomanry Cavalry in the later 19th century. This unit evolved to become the Shropshire Imperial Yeomanry in 1901 and the Shropshire Yeomanry in 1908. By the early 20th century the Divisional Troops of the Royal Artillery and the offices of the Shropshire Territorial Force Association were also based in the building. The Shropshire Yeomanry was mobilised from Kingston House in August 1914 before being deployed to Egypt. After the war the house was decommissioned and converted for commercial use: it is now occupied by a firm of solicitors.
“Kingston House, Shrewsbury” enters the record as building in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, UK. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Kingston, House and Shrewsbury can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Kingston House, Shrewsbury” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Kingston, House and Shrewsbury provides the most credible route into that argument.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q26546416. Authority coordinates are 52.708, -2.752. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1679, 1872, 1901 and 1908.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Kingston House, Shrewsbury”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Kingston House, Shrewsbury primary sources, Kingston House, Shrewsbury archive and Kingston research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Kingston House, Shrewsbury”?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Kingston House, Shrewsbury” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.