Ellowes Hall was a stately home located in
Sedgley
Sedgley is a town in the north of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England.
Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, Sedgley is on the A459 road between Wolverhampt ...
,
Staffordshire (now
West Midlands
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
).
It was built in 1821 in parkland near
Lower Gornal
Gornal is a suburban area and electoral ward of the Dudley Metropolitan Borough, in the West Midlands county in England. It encompasses three historic villages: Upper Gornal, Lower Gornal, and Gornal Wood. Gornal was formerly part of Staffordshi ...
village as the home of wealthy local ironmonger John Fereday and his family. Over the next 100 years or more, successive different wealthy owners lived in the house. It remained in the ownership of the Fereday family until 1850, when it was sold to fellow industrialist William Baldwin until 1865, when it became the residence of Charles Cochrane, Mayor of
Dudley
Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...
. The next resident was
Sir Horace St Paul, who moved there in the early 1870s and lived there until his death in 1891. The next occupant was
Bilston
Bilston is a market town, ward, and civil parish located in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. It is close to the borders of Sandwell and Walsall. The nearest towns are Darlaston, Wednesbury, and Willenhall. Historically in Staffordshi ...
county councillor John Gibbons, who lived there until his death in 1919, when it was sold to the Mitchell family. The Mitchell family lived in the house until 1923, when it was sold to Henry Arthur Nock, who owned the house until his death in 1946. After the outbreak of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
in 1939, Ellowes Hall was used as a
Home Guard
Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense.
The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting w ...
headquarters.
The Nock family sold the house to
Staffordshire Education Authority in 1963, and it was demolished in 1964 - the same year that a
new secondary school with the same name was built within its grounds.
More than 40 years on, the "old coach road" which connected the hall with nearby Moden Hill is still in existence as a public footpath, but motor vehicles are no longer allowed to use it. The surrounding woodland, which forms part of
Cotwall End Valley, is still known locally as Ellowes Hall Wood.
{{Coord, 52.5261, -2.1295, display=title
References
Buildings and structures in Dudley
Country houses in the West Midlands (county)
British country houses destroyed in the 20th century