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 Ire ...

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 Townhouse (Great Britain), town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the cit ...

in Staffordshire, 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 ...

, southwest of Uttoxeter 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, n ...

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 personif ...

, 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. 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, 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, 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 gre ...

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 visit the Hall to perform the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance. Baron Bagot coa

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 Bagot goat. 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 in Staffordshire ...

, the remains of the ancient Needwood Forest, 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