Blithfield Hall (pronounced locally as Bliffield), is a privately-owned

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, England, situated some east of

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in t ...

, southwest of

Uttoxeter Uttoxeter ( , ) is a market town in the East Staffordshire district in the county of Staffordshire, England. It is near to the Derbyshire county border. It is situated from Burton upon Trent, from Stafford, from Stoke-on-Trent, from De ...

and north of

Rugeley Rugeley ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Cannock Chase District in Staffordshire, England. It lies on the north-eastern edge of Cannock Chase next to the River Trent; it is situated north of Lichfield, south-east of Stafford, nort ...

The Hall, with its embattled towers and walls, has been the home of the Bagot family since the late 14th century. The present house is mainly

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...

, with a

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

façade added in the 1820s to a design probably by John Buckler. The decoration of the house was carried out by the Gothic-style plasterer,

Francis Bernasconi Francis Bernasconi (1762 – 1 January 1841), aka Francisco Bernasconi, was an English ornamental carver and plasterer of Italian descent. He became one of the most successful ornamental carvers and plasterers in Georgian Britain. Early life Fr ...

. In 1945 the Hall, then in a neglected and dilapidated state, was sold by Gerald Bagot, 5th Baron Bagot, together with its estate to

South Staffordshire Waterworks Company South Staffordshire Water plc known as South Staffs Water is a UK water supply company owned by a privately owned utilities company serving parts of Staffordshire the West Midlands as well as small areas of surrounding counties in England. Sou ...

, whose intention was to build a reservoir (completed in 1953). The 5th Baron died in 1946 having sold many of the contents of the house. His successor and cousin

Caryl Bagot, 6th Baron Bagot Caryl Ernest Bagot, 6th Baron Bagot (9 March 1877 – 5 August 1961), was the son of Rev. Lewis Richard Charles Bagot (1846–1922) Vicar of Stanton Lacy, Shropshire. He succeeded to the Barony of Bagot's Bromley and the Baronetcy of Blithfiel ...

, repurchased the property and of land from the water company and began an extensive programme of renovation and restoration. In September 1959 Lord Bagot sold Blithfield Hall at an open auction held in the Shrewsbury Arms,

. The property was bought for £12,000 (''2011: £'') by his wife Nancy, Lady Bagot. The 6th Baron died in 1961. In 1986, the Hall was divided into four separate houses. The main part which incorporates the

Great Hall A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, castle or a large manor house or hall house in the Middle Ages, and continued to be built in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries, although by then the family used the great ...

is owned by the Bagot Jewitt Trust. The Bagot Jewitt family remain in residence. On a Monday in early September every year, villagers from nearby

Abbots Bromley Abbots Bromley is a village and civil parish in the East Staffordshire district of Staffordshire and lies approximately east of Stafford, England. According to the University of Nottingham English Place-names project, the settlement name Abbots ...

visit the Hall to perform the

Abbots Bromley Horn Dance The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance is an English folk dance dating back to the Middle Ages. The dance takes place each year in Abbots Bromley, a village in Staffordshire, England. The modern version of the dance involves reindeer antlers, a hobby h ...

Blithfield Hall is known as the home of a breed of

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...

, the

Bagot goat The Bagot goat is a breed of goat which for several hundred years has lived semi-wild at Blithfield Hall, Staffordshire, England. In 2010 it was considered "critically endangered" by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, as there were fewer than 100 ...

. The part of the parish known as Bagot's Bromley took its name from ownership by the family since 1360.Blithfield Hall

Bagot's Wood Bagot's Wood is the largest extant piece of the ancient Needwood Forest, located near to Abbots Bromley, in Staffordshire, England. The forest derives its name from the Bagot family, seated for centuries at Blithfield Hall Blithfield Hall (pron ...

, the remains of the ancient

Needwood Forest Needwood Forest was a large area of ancient woodland in Staffordshire, England, which was largely lost at the end of the 18th century. History The forest was on extensive lands owned by the Berkeley family of Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershi ...

, also takes its name from the Bagots.

References

* ''Blithfield Hall - A descriptive Survey and History'' Nancy, Lady Bagot (1966) English Life Publications

External links

Blithfield Hall website
- This link is now all adverts - nothing useful to see.
Images of England:Blithfield Hall
{{Coord, 52.812987, -1.935716, source:geograph.co.uk_region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Country houses in Staffordshire Gothic Revival architecture in Staffordshire Grade I listed houses in Staffordshire

See also

References

External links