At the time Sutherland, 57, was keen to move back to Shropshire, the county where he and his wife, Liz, 52, grew up. He also wanted to relocate his business, Redan, a children’s magazine publisher then based in London. He knew the Grade II-listed hall, dating back to 1581, needed work — but once that was complete, its location, eight miles from Shrewsbury, made it seem the perfect place in which to live and work.

Sutherland did not have a survey done before he bought the hall. “An architect friend went round it with me,” he recalls. “He said, ‘A survey will only tell you what you already know — you have a lot of work to do.’ He added, ‘It’ll be here for another 400 years,’ which I took as a good sign.”

In autumn 1997, the Sutherlands moved in. So did the builders. “The moment the builder started looking at it, we had a rude awakening,” Sutherland says. “The hall floor was about to collapse into the cellar. It was a bit of a shock — the builder wouldn’t let his men walk across it. Beams had to be replaced, including the jetty holding up the house. The wood specialist didn’t know I was the owner. He said, ‘I’ve never seen a jetty in such poor condition. I feel sorry for the sod that owns this.’ ”

The main work took a year. “We thought that we’d live at one end while the builders worked at the other, but it was a nightmare. The worst was when bitumen on the outside was sandblasted off. Even the pepper pot poured sand.”

The couple also had massive bills. “We spent almost £600,000 — four times what we thought,” says Sutherland. But at just the right moment, one of his magazines, about a purple dinosaur called Barney, became a huge success. “It’s funny that something so tasteless has paid for such a tasteful restoration.”

The hall’s renovation has preserved a piece of Tudor history and created a wonderful family home. “It does look beautiful,” Sutherland says. “We spent a lot of time and money stripping off the plaster to reveal all the timberwork — the original carpenters’ marks are all over the beams.”

Minsterley Hall is set in 3.2 acres, which include a summer house and a gardener’s house. On the ground floor, there is a drawing room, dining room, study, living room, kitchen, plus a utility room, two cloakrooms, and a butler’s kitchen. Two oak staircases lead to the first floor, where there is another drawing room, five bedrooms and four bathrooms. The second floor is used as a gym but has the potential to be turned into further bedrooms.

The couple now feel that the hall is too big for them, since they have no children. “There are two of us in a 9,000sq ft building, and the hall needs a lot of looking after,” says Sutherland. But he has no regrets. “A conservation officer came to see the house and said, ‘We thought we had lost this one.’ We have saved it — and it has been a good experience.”

Minsterley Hall is for sale for £1.35m with Savills, 01952 239 513, www.savills.co.uk

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