Wychnor Hall (or Wychnor Park, ) is

Grade II 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 I ...

early 18th-century country house near Burton on Trent,

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 C ...

, formerly owned by the

Levett Family Levett is a surname of Anglo-Norman origin, deriving from eLivet, which is held particularly by families and individuals resident in England and British Commonwealth territories. Origins This surname comes from the village of Livet-en-Ouche, n ...

. The hall has been converted to a Country Club.

History

Wychnor takes its name from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...

meaning 'village on a bank.' Its earliest spelling was Hwiccenofre. Ofre was the Anglo-Saxon word for "edge or bank". Hwicce was a provence comprising Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and a part of Warwickshire and the people were called Hwiccas or Hwicii. It is thought that some of these people came to settle in Wychnor and so gave their name to the place they settled in. King James I reportedly stayed at the hall in 1621 and 1624. The present hall dates from the time of Queen Anne but was much altered and extended in the mid 19th century. There are a number of curious customs associated with Wychnor, at least one of which was said to have begun with Sir Philip de Somerville, who owned the manor of Wychnor in 1338. A

flitch of bacon The awarding of a flitch of bacon to married couples who can swear to not having regretted their marriage for a year and a day is an old tradition, the remnants of which still survive in some pockets in England. The tradition was maintained at ...

was kept in the hall that could be claimed by anyone who had been married "for a year and a day without quarrelling or repenting; and that if they were then single, and wished to be married again, the demandant would take the same party before any other in the world." Valid claimants being few and far between, the flitch was replaced by a wooden effigy of same, which continued to hang in the hall for many centuries.

Offley family

In 1661 Wychnor manor was purchased by Mary Offley, widow of John Offley of Madeley. The estate was inherited by her grandson Crewe Offley. He is said to have rebuilt the hall, but died in 1739. He left his real estate to pay all his debts, apart from a property in Chelsea which his elder son John inherited for three years before it reverted to his younger son. The will also contained provisions to protect the younger son's inheritance from his elder brother. . John Offley had been one of the pupils of

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

at Edial Hall near Lichfield, and continued to live at Wychnor after his father's death. By 1756 was keeper of his majesty's private roads, gates and bridges, and conductor or guide to his majesty in his royal progresses. In 1765, he sold Wychnor with every article in the house and on the estate, as it was to

John Levett John Levett (1721 — 1799) of Wychnor Park, Staffordshire, was an English landowner and investor, and a Tory politician. Biography John Levett was the son of Theophilus Levett (1693-1746), Lichfield attorney and town clerk, and his wife Mary ...

Levett family

John Levett, the son of

Lichfield Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west o ...

politician

Theophilus Levett Theophilus Levett (1693–1746) was an attorney and early town clerk of Lichfield, Staffordshire, a prominent Staffordshire politician and landowner, and a member of a thriving Lichfield social and intellectual circle which included his friends S ...

, purchased Wychnor in 1765. John, a landowner, investor and sometime member of the Lunar Society), was

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for

. Though he died childless, Wychnor remained for many years the home of the Levett family. John' s nephew Theophilus Levett was Recorder of Lichfield and High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1809. His friend

General A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". O ...

William Dyott General William Dyott (17 April 1761 – 7 May 1847) was a British Army officer and courtier who served in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Having joined the 4th Regiment of Foot during the American Revolutionary War, he initially serv ...

, Aide-de-camp to

King George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great B ...

, attended Levett's simple funeral at Wychnor and noted that Levett "has left great riches to his younger children with the exception of his son Arthur, to whom he has bequeathed £4,000." A second John Levett was High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1846.

Theophilus John Levett Colonel Theophilus John Levett (11 December 1829 – 27 February 1899) was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom, who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Lichfield from 1880 to 1885. Levett was the son of John Levett of Wychno ...

, grandson of the Sheriff of the same name, was M.P. for Lichfield from 1880 to 1885. JohnLevett

Later history

The Levett family held Wychnor Hall until 1913, when it was sold to Lt.-Col. W.E. Harrison, of a family who had mining interests around Cannock, in the West Midlands. The estate was broken up and sold piecemeal in 1976 and the Hall and its immediate grounds passed through various owners, being converted into the Wychnor Park Country Club after 1981.http://lesleyscoffeestop.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-history-of-wychnor-hall.html; account believed based on material distributed to guests staying at the Wychnor Park Country Club

References

External links

* {{NHLE, num=1038441 , desc=Wychnor Hall * ''Burkes Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland'', Part 2 (1863) p. 869. * Levett Family Papers. Staffordshire Archive Service, Lichfield Record Office
''Mansions and Country Seats of Staffordshire and Warwickshire'', Alfred Williams, 1899 Wichnor ParkJohn Levett, Wychnor Park, The Scots Peerage, James Balfour Paul, Edinburgh, 1905