The Country House Guide, R Fedden & J Kenworthy-Browne, Jonathan Cape, (1979)

'The Saxon village, high in the Shropshire hills, was appropriately named Upton. Now there remain only the manor house, once moated, and the diminutive church with its fine Norman chancel arch. John de Upton was the Norman Lord of the Manor, and in the 14th century his descendant married a Cressett. Hugh Cressett in the 15th century was Constable of Mortimer Castle and High Sheriff and Member of Parliament for Shropshire. His son Robert, a Yorkist by allegience is said to have lodged the boy King Edward V here on his last journey from Ludlow to London. The oldest parts of the house may be dated about 1380 and 1480.

The Cressetts remained Catholic and royalist. Francis Cressett was one of those who tried to rescue Charles I from Carisbroke Castle in 1648. And was his Treasurer in that last fateful year. Yet eventually they changed their loyalties and James was envoy to Hanover during the negotiations for the Hanoverian succession. The family lived at Upton until 1701 but then they built a new house Cound Hall, in this county. Upton was let and was finally sold in 1919.

Remote from public highways, the house first appears on the skyline as a solid mass with two prominent chimney stacks. Adjoining it is a Gatehouse, a substantial late Elizabethan building of diapered brick with polygonal turrets. The newel stair leads to good rooms, obviously built as additional lodgings, with plaster ceilings. The narrow gateway is aligned with the original main door of the house.

Doubtless the Manor once enclosed a courtyard, but half of it was demolished by the early 18th century and whatever remained of the old timber building was cased in brick. The lower part of the original Great Hall was once longer than it is now. Two oak piers that rise from the floor suggest that this is a rare suvival  of an aisled hall, while in the room (now a library) above the arched timber roof survives in fine condition. The date for this maybe 1380 when the families of Upton and Cressett were united by marriage.

The long cross-wing, at least half of which is 15th century, undoubtedly replaced an earlier structure. Two fireplaces, one of them serving the kitchen, three brick chimneys and some windows look early Tudor. But substantial remodeling was carried out in 1580 and the panelling in the Drawing Room and the bedroom above is dated 1600. At some point the oak staircase was moved from the cross-wing to its present position. So many alterations and dates add to the fascination of this house, and it deserves a detailed and expert study.'