BOOK OF DOVECOTES 



there are far older dovecotes to be found in 

 Shropshire; and in quest of one of these we 

 may betake ourselves to the most pleasant gar- 

 den of the White House, Aston Munslow, a 

 place lying north-east of that important local 

 junction, Craven Arms. 



The White House dovecote is a round stone 

 building, very obviously of Norman date; fairly 

 large, with a circumference of seventy-five feet 

 and a height to the eaves of fifteen feet. One of 

 its points of greatest interest is the thickness 

 of the walls — ^four feet, while those at Garway, 

 it will be recalled, are but three feet ten inches. 

 The entrance is a very narrow one. 



There is no potence now remaining, but we 

 can still see the socket-hole in which the lower 

 end was placed; also a remnant of the beam 

 itself. The nest-holes, numbering about five 

 hundred, are L-shaped. There is a string-course 

 placed unusually low down — some two feet 

 only from the ground. 



Unhappily, during the owner's temporary 

 absence from the property, the roof fell in; but 

 some of the stone tiles which covered it have 

 been preserved, together with the wooden pegs 

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