Blakesley Hall, a grade II*

listed building 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 I ...

is a Tudor hall on Blakesley Road in Yardley,

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

, England. It is one of the oldest buildings in Birmingham and is a typical example of

Tudor architecture The Tudor architectural style is the final development of Medieval architecture in England and Wales, during the Tudor period (1485–1603) and even beyond, and also the tentative introduction of Renaissance architecture to Britain. It fo ...

with the use of darkened timber and

wattle-and-daub Wattle and daub is a composite building method used for making walls and buildings, in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called wattle is daubed with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung a ...

infill, with an external

lime render Lime render is the first coat of lime "plaster or the like" applied to the external surfaces of traditionally-built stone or brick buildings. It allows the building to 'breathe' – as lime is porous, it allows for the collection and evaporatio ...

which is painted white. The extensive use of

close studding Close studding is a form of timber work used in timber-framed buildings in which vertical timbers ( studs) are set close together, dividing the wall into narrow panels. Rather than being a structural feature, the primary aim of close studding is to ...

and herringbone patterns on all sides of the house make this a home that was designed to show the wealth and status of the owner. The house is also jettied on all sides. At the rear of the hall, built on the back of the chimney, is a brick kitchen block dating from circa 1650. The hall is a

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, w ...

-framed

farmhouse FarmHouse (FH) is a social fraternity founded at the University of Missouri on April 15, 1905. It became a national organization in 1921. Today FarmHouse has 33 active chapters and four associate chapters (formerly colonies) in the United State ...

built in 1590 (when Yardley was in

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

) by

Richard Smalbroke Richard Smallbrooke (1672 – 22 December 1749) was an English churchman, Bishop of St David's and then of Lichfield and Coventry. Life The son of Samuel Smallbrooke (buried 23 May 1701) of Rowington,Burial: https://www.familysearch.org/ar ...

, a man of local importance to Yardley. His family

farmed Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

at the hall and had other buildings in the surrounding area which were lost over time. After 1685, the building passed into the hands of the Greswolde family and for the next 200 years became a tenant farm. In 1899, the hall was acquired by Henry Donne who renovated the dilapidated house before selling it to the Merry family, a local paint and varnish manufacturer, who were the last family to occupy the hall. The hall became a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

in 1935 after centuries of use as a private home and its

parlour A parlour (or parlor) is a reception room or public space. In medieval Christian Europe, the "outer parlour" was the room where the monks or nuns conducted business with those outside the monastery and the "inner parlour" was used for necessar ...

was renovated. Its purpose was to display the history of the local medieval manors which comprise Birmingham. The Hall was damaged by a bomb in November 1941 causing extensive damage and the museum did not open again until 1957. After research in the 1970s, the Hall was restored to an authentic period appearance and refurbished using furnishings drawn from the 1684 inventory of the contents. It was last renovated in 2002 with the extension of a visitor centre and car park. Some structural work was also carried out in the hall and modern intrusive features such as the toilet block and the boiler room were removed, the former being relocated into the new visitor centre. This allowed the second smaller parlour to be placed on the ground floor next to the Great Parlour. An adjacent

barn A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Alle ...

(Grade II listed) to the east of the hall has been renovated and consists of exhibition space and space for social functions. As a ''Community Museum'', that is a branch museum, of the Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery it is run by

Birmingham Museums Trust Birmingham Museums Trust is the largest independent charitable trust of museums in the United Kingdom. It runs nine museum sites across the city of Birmingham, including Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BMAG) and Thinktank, Birmingham Science ...

. Many of the original architectural features of the hall remain such as the herringbone floor. Among the artefacts discovered at the hall are candlesticks and pewter goblets. In the Bedchamber, paintings on the wall from 1590 were discovered after being hidden for centuries, their rediscovery partly in thanks of the bomb damage that loosened a significant amount of plaster in the hall. When renovations took place postwar, inspection of the bedchamber revealed fragments of leather and painted plaster. When the chamber was cleaned up, the walls and timbers were shown to be decorated in a Moorish design. A mock up of how the 'painted chamber' would have looked can be seen in the back bedroom at Blakesley hall. The Gilbertstone, moved in local folklore by the Giant named Gilbert (which gave its name to the area of

Gilbertstone Gilbertstone is a residential suburban area straddling the border of Yardley and South Yardley in Birmingham, West Midlands. Etymology It is unknown where the name actually came from but a local legend states that a man named Gilbert lifted an ...

on the border of Yardley and

South Yardley South Yardley is a largely residential area in east Birmingham, England about from the city centre, and one of the city's 69 electoral wards. Ward Following the 2017 City of Birmingham ward revisions South Yardley covers a much smaller area. ...

), is displayed in the grounds of the museum.

References

Sources

*''By the Gains of Industry - Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery 1885-1985'', Stuart Davies, 1985, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery () *''Frommer's England 2005'', Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince, 2004 , Frommer's () *''The Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield - A Commemorative History'', Douglas V. Jones, 1994, Westwood Press () *''Blakesley Hall'', Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, 2006 (leaflet) *"''Medieval Yardley''", Victor Skipp, 1970, Phillimore.

External links

Blakesley Hall
Official website

- Educational teaching sessions and resources at Blakesley Hall

- fun and games for children based on Blakesley Hall

article on the restoration of Blakesley Hall {{BirminghamBuildings Houses in Birmingham, West Midlands Museums in Birmingham, West Midlands Grade II* listed buildings in the West Midlands (county) History of Worcestershire Historic house museums in the West Midlands (county) Grade II* listed museum buildings Birmingham Museums Trust