Description:In 1808, the Rowley Hall estate was auctioned at the Swan Hotel and bought by a prominent local solicitor William Keen who demolished the old, dilapidated hall and built a new Regency style Hall in its place. He bought back land and established grand landscaped gardens before he died suddenly from a riding injury.
The estate was inherited by his brother and in turn his son in law Robert Hand who needed capital if he was to continue to develop the estate. Unable to attain a good price through auction, he devised a plan to continue living in the Hall by dividing the estate into small plots, selling it to his own development company and then raising capital by selling shares in the company.
In 1867 the Staffordshire Land and Building and Improvement Company Ltd started building in Rowley Park with local shareholders as diverse as Michael Bass (the Burton Brewer), Maria Butler (a laundry maid at Tixall Hall) and many Stafford businessmen.