Blyth Hall is a privately owned mansion house on the banks of the

River Blythe The River Blythe flows through the English Midlands from central Warwickshire, through the Borough of Solihull and on to Coleshill in north Warwickshire. It runs along the Meriden Gap in the Midlands Plateau, is fed by the River Cole and is ...

situated near

Shustoke Shustoke is a village in the North Warwickshire district of the county of Warwickshire in England.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 549. It is situated 2.5 miles nor ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

. It is a

Grade I 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 Irel ...

. The estate was purchased in 1625 by

Sir William Dugdale Sir William Dugdale (12 September 1605 – 10 February 1686) was an English antiquary and herald. As a scholar he was influential in the development of medieval history as an academic subject. Life Dugdale was born at Shustoke, near Coles ...

, a prominent antiquarian, who shortly thereafter built himself a new house on the site. In about 1690–1700 the house was substantially enlarged and improved with a twelve-bay brick façade with two storeys and additional upper dormers. In the 18th century Jane Dugdale, sole heiress of Blyth, married Richard Geast of Handsworth. Their son, also Richard Geast, married Penelope Stratford, heiress of neighbouring Merivale Hall in 1767. He inherited Blyth from his maternal uncle John Dugdale and changed his name to Dugdale in 1799. Later Dugdales became

Dugdale baronets There have been two Baronetcies created for persons with the surname Dugdale, both in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. The Dugdale Baronetcy, ''of Merevale and Blyth in the County of Warwick'', was created in the Baronetage of the United Ki ...

of Blyth and Merevale. The Dugdale family is still in residence at Blyth Hall, which is not open to the public.

References

Warwickshire Museum Timetrail
* ''Burkes Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry ''(Bernard Burke) {{Authority control Country houses in Warwickshire Grade I listed buildings in Warwickshire Borough of North Warwickshire