Teddesley Hall was a large
Georgian
Georgian may refer to:
Common meanings
* Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country)
** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group
** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians
**Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
English 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 ...
located close to
Penkridge
Penkridge ( ) is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in South Staffordshire, South Staffordshire District in Staffordshire, England. It is to the south of Stafford, north of Wolverhampton, west of Cannock and east of Telford. ...
in
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 ...
, now demolished. It was the
main seat firstly of the
Littleton Baronets
Three baronetcies have been created in the Baronetage of England for members of the Littleton or Lyttelton family. All three lines are descended from Thomas de Littleton, a noted 15th-century jurist. Despite differences in the spelling of the ...
and then of the
Barons Hatherton. The site today retains considerable traces of the hall, gardens and other buildings, while the former
home farm remains a working farm.
Origins and history
![Penkridge St Michael - Sit Edward Littleton 1812 monument](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Penkridge_St_Michael_-_Sit_Edward_Littleton_1812_monument.jpg)
Teddesley Hall was built by Sir Edward Littleton, the fourth to hold the baronetcy, who succeeded in 1742, while still a
minor. The Littletons had risen steadily in importance as landowners in the
Penkridge
Penkridge ( ) is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in South Staffordshire, South Staffordshire District in Staffordshire, England. It is to the south of Stafford, north of Wolverhampton, west of Cannock and east of Telford. ...
area over the course of more than two centuries. Their seat since the early 16th century had been
Pillaton Hall
Pillaton Hall was an historic house located in Pillaton, Staffordshire, near Penkridge, England. For more than two centuries it was the seat of the Littleton family, a family of local landowners and politicians. The 15th century gatehouse is the ...
, a short distance east of the village, the site of which they had inherited from the Wynnesbury family. They had owned Teddesley Hay, an area of 2,625 acres to the north-east of Penkridge, since the mid-16th century. However, the lords of Pillaton had held it as
farmers or lessees for at least three centuries before that. The Hay had been formerly part of the
royal forest
A royal forest, occasionally known as a kingswood (), is an area of land with different definitions in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The term ''forest'' in the ordinary modern understanding refers to an area of wooded land; however, the ...
of Cank or
Cannock Chase
Cannock Chase (), often referred to locally as The Chase, is a mixed area of countryside in the county of Staffordshire, England. The area has been designated as the Cannock Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is managed by Forestry E ...
. It was very sparsely inhabited: in 1666 the assessment for the hearth tax found only three eligible to pay it in the Hay and it had only 59 inhabitants as late as 1811.
The fourth baronet completed his family's dominance in the area by buying the manor of Penkridge from the
Francis Greville, Lord Brooke in 1749. It seems that he decided to build a new seat for the family at Teddesley around that time, as he moved into the Hall in 1754, before it was entirely completed. It was built on the site of Teddesley Lodge, a smaller house that had earlier accommodated junior members of the Littleton family. It was said that the finance came from large hoards of coins discovered behind panels at Pillaton Hall, which raised the then vast sum of £15,000 on sale.
Sir Edward developed a large park surrounding the Hall. It became noted for the quality of its cattle, and its reputation for agricultural innovation was enhanced by his heir,
Edward Walhouse, a great-nephew who changed his name to Littleton in order to succeed to the estates, but not the baronetcy, in 1812. He was to become the first
Baron Hatherton
Baron Hatherton, of Hatherton in the County of Stafford, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1835 for the politician Edward Littleton, Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1833 to 1834. Born Edward Walhouse, he ass ...
in 1835. Hatherton drained and developed a large area of land to expand the farm into a holding of some 1700 acres around the Hall, with 200 cattle and 2000 sheep, 700 acres under cultivation. By 1860, he had established a free agricultural college for 30 boys there.
![Penkridge St Michael - Hyacinthe Gabrielle memorial](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Penkridge_St_Michael_-_Hyacinthe_Gabrielle_memorial.jpg)
Under Hatherton, Teddesley became a political and literary salon. His first wife, Hyacinth Mary Wellesley, daughter of
Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, and thus niece of the
Iron Duke. The Marchioness,
Hyacinthe-Gabrielle Roland
Hyacinthe-Gabrielle Wellesley, Countess of Mornington (née Roland or Rolland; 5 November 1816) was a French actress who became the mistress, and later the wife, of Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley. As an actress, she was known as Gabri ...
, Mary's mother, a famous French actress (as "Gabrielle Fagan") in earlier life, was residing at Teddesley when she died in 1816. Mary presided over life at Teddesley during much of Hatherton's political career but died in 1849. Hatherton married Caroline Davenport, almost twenty years his junior, in 1852. An educated middle-class woman, she had liberal political and literary interests of her own, and one of her guests at Teddesley was the novelist
Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (''née'' Stevenson; 29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many st ...
.
The Hall remained the
main seat of the Hathertons for five generations, although the first Baron had also inherited Hatherton Hall, another
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 ...
, from which he derived his title. It ceased to be the family home after the death of the third Lord Hatherton in 1930. During
World War II
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 opposin ...
it was requisitioned by the government and used for billeting troops and
prisoners of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold priso ...
. After the war, it remained empty for some years. The fifth Lord Hatherton sold most of the Littletons' remaining estates in the area in 1953, including the Hall. Being no longer required, it was demolished by the new owner in 1954,
as were many such large houses at this time, although the service buildings were kept for storage use.
Building and grounds
The name of the architect who designed Teddesley Hall is not known for certain. It is certain, however, that Charles Cope Trubshaw, forebear of a
dynasty of Staffordshire architects, who lived nearby, worked at Teddesley in the early days, so he is a definite candidate. Another possible designer was William Baker, a Cheshire architect who is known to have drawn up plans for buildings in Teddesley Park in 1757–59, about a decade after the likely start date for the Hall.
VCH Staffordshire: Volume 5: 23, Teddesley Hay
/ref>
The Hall was large but austere, a three-storied, square, brick structure, with stone dressings. There were seven windows on the upper storeys on all four faces. Its frontage to the garden had a large, projecting bay. The entrance was pediment
Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape.
Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds.
A pedimen ...
ed and pilaster
In classical architecture
Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...
ed and was approached by a double flight of steps. The main room was octagonal and housed an organ.
The main building was linked by curved screen walls to flanking ranges, one housing stables, the other kitchens, stores and servants' rooms. These partially enclosed the entrance court to the house.
The grounds contained a formal garden some distance to the south east of the house. To the west was a large expanse of informal parkland, sloping down to the Lodgerail Pool, created by damming a small tributary of the River Penk
The River Penk is a small river flowing through Staffordshire, England. Its course is mainly within South Staffordshire, and it drains most of the northern part of that district, together with some adjoining areas of Cannock Chase, Stafford, Wo ...
. The grounds contained a number of other pools and lakes, some intended specifically for fishing. To the north east was a large complex of farm buildings, mostly of 19th century date around an 18th-century core. The overall scope and design of these was owed mainly to the 1st Lord Hatherton. The park was largely bordered by linear wooded areas, the northern section being known as the Wellington Belt.
References
{{reflist
External links
Staffordshire Past Track
County local history site with maps and photographs.
Country houses in Staffordshire
Georgian architecture in England
Penkridge
History of Staffordshire