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Historic Buildings of Warwickshire
England
Image right - Warwick Castle
Image by DeFacto - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wiki Commons
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The object of this project is to provide information about historic buildings in the county of Warwickshire, with links to sub-projects for specific buildings as appropriate. GENi profiles of people associated with those establishments can be linked to this project and/or to individual projects where they have been set up.
If you have information about any of the Buildings mentioned below please share it here. If you have ancestors linked to any of the places please add them to the project.
Historic houses in alphabetical order
Including Castles, Abbeys, Priories, Manor Houses, Mansions, Stately Homes, Country houses, Estate houses, Courts, Halls, Parks and other listed buildings of historic interest.
Full sizes of the thumbnail images can be seen in the Gallery attached to the project or by clicking the thumbnail image. TIP - Use ctrl+the link to open the image in a separate tab, or use "back" to return to this project page) Sources for the images can be found in the image details as seen in the gallery.
Names with Bold links are to Geni profiles or projects. Other links take you to external biographical web pages. Please copy and paste the bullet used - ● - instead of * when adding items to the list.
A
● Anne Hathaway's Cottage is a twelve-roomed farmhouse where Anne Hathaway, the wife of William Shakespeare, lived as a child in the village of Shottery, Warwickshire, England, about 1 mile (1.6 km) west of Stratford-upon-Avon. Spacious, and with several bedrooms, it is now set in extensive gardens. The earliest part of the house was built prior to the 15th century; the higher part is 17th century. The house was known as Newlands Farm in Shakespeare's day and had more than 90 acres (36 hectares) of land attached to it; to call it a cottage is really a misnomer, as it is much larger than the term usually means. As in many houses of the period, it has multiple chimneys to spread the heat evenly throughout the house during winter. The largest chimney was used for cooking. It also has visible timber framing, typical of vernacular Tudor architecture. After the death of Hathaway's father, the cottage was owned by her brother Bartholomew, and was passed down the Hathaway family until 1846, when financial problems forced them to sell it. However, it was still occupied by them as tenants when it was acquired in 1892 by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust,
● Ansty Hall The Manor of Ansty was owned by the Stanhope family from 1406. It was sold in 1506 to the Earl of Shrewsbury who donated it to the Dean of St George's, Windsor and was let out on lease until 1659 when it was purchased by Richard Tayler. The old manor was replaced by Edward Tayler in 1678 with a seven-bayed, two-storey mansion. On the death of a later Edward Tayler in 1799 the property passed to his nephew Simon Adams, a barrister and Recorder of Daventry. In 1800 Adams remodeled the house adding a third storey to the main block, with a pediment over the central three bays, and two one-bayed wings, so creating a Carolean style entrance front. Later extensions were added to the south east in the mid and late 19th century. Henry Cadwallader Adams (1779-1842) was Mayor of Coventry in 1836 and High Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1837. His nephew and namesake Henry Cadwallader Adams (1817-1899) was a children's writer. Descendants of the Adams family remained in residence until 1965. More recently the property has been restored and converted for use as an hotel.
● Arbury Hall - Elizabethan Mansion
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● Bilton Grange is a preparatory school located in Dunchurch, near Rugby. The present headmaster is Mr. APM Osiatynski. The mansion which forms the main school was built in 1846 and was a private family home. It is a Grade II● listed building. The first pupils were brought to the house by The Reverend Walter Earle in 1887. The famous architect Pugin designed the library and a staircase leading to the boarding house. Bilton Grange is commonly recognised as the feeder to Rugby School Notable former pupils:
- John Senior, founder of Heroes Welcome UK
- Miles Kington, jazz musician and writer
- Rupert Evans, actor
- Sir Ernest Gowers, civil servant and author of Plain Words
- Sir Nicholas Winterton, MP
- Taio Cruz, singer/songwriter
● Brownsover Hall The manor of Brownsover was owned from 1471 by the Boughton family who were created Boughton Baronets in 1642. In 1780 Sir Theodosius Boughton was allegedly murdered by his brother-in-law and the estate passed to his sister Theodosia, and thence to Sir Egerton Leigh, Bt, of the Leigh of West Hall family. Leigh's daughter and heiress, also Theodosia, married John Ward, who changed his name by Royal Licence to Ward-Boughton-Leigh. In the mid 19th century the old manor house was replaced with the present mansion, designed in a Victorian Gothic style by architect Sir George Gilbert Scott. William Holland designed a stained glass window and carved tables as frames for Italian marble slabs. He is well known for establishing a Stained Glass and Decorative works at St. John's, Warwick. Other contributors to the new manor were Marshall and Snelgrove of London, and Eld and Chamberlain, of Midland House, Birmingham relating to the carpets and furnishings that were chosen for the house. The Hall was the home of the Ward-Boughton-Leighs until the 1930s. The Brownsover estate was bought by and became the residence (1936-1942) of Sir Frank Whittle, credited with the invention of the jet engine. After Whittle moved out, the hall became the residence of Vernon Henry St John, 6th Viscount Bolingbroke, 7th Viscount St John. The hotel revels in its reputation as being haunted by ghosts. This has been a local mystery for some years, and many people purport to have had 'experiences'.
C
● Compton Verney is a manor and parish in the county of Warwickshire, England. The first record of a settlement at Compton Verney was the late Saxon village of Compton. It had good communications, being served by the Fosse Way, which ran north–south half a mile from the site and led from the Roman settlements of Cirencester to Leicester. By the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 (a survey carried out for the Norman king, William the Conqueror, to record land ownership and values), the village was divided into two manors. The largest manor was held by the Count of Meulan, and this was inherited by the Earls of Warwick, who held it in the king’s name. Some time before 1150, the manor was granted to Robert Murdac and the village became known as Compton Murdak, passing by inheritance to the heirs of the Murdak family. In 1370, after two hundred years of Murdak ownership, Sir Thomas Murdak surrendered the estate to Edward III’s mistress, Alice Perrers. In 1435, it was acquired by Richard Verney (1435–1490) with the assistance of his younger brother John Verney, Dean of Lichfield, and the Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. The Verney family had begun acquiring lands in the area of Compton Murdak and the surrounding villages in the 1430s before purchasing the estate. Around 1500, it was so closely associated with the Verney family that it began to be known as Compton Verney. According to William Dugdale in his Antiquities of Warwickshire (1656) a manor house was built there in about 1442. In 1656, William Dugdale wrote: Richard Verney Esquire (afterward Knight)… built a great part of the House, as it now standeth, wherein, besides his own Armes with matches, he then set up…towards the upper end of the Hall, the Armes of King Henry the Sixth
● Coombe Abbey was founded as a monastery in the 12th century. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century it became royal property. Elizabeth of Bohemia, the daughter of king James I, was educated there in the early 17th century. Had the Gunpowder Plot succeeded she was to have been abducted from Coombe Abbey and proclaimed as Queen Elizabeth II. In 1682, the West Wing was added by architect Captain William Winde, who also designed Buckingham House, which later became Buckingham Palace. In 1771, Lancelot 'Capability' Brown redesigned the gardens, incorporating the Coombe Pool lake. For successive generations Coombe Abbey was owned by the Earls of Craven, in whose possession the estate remained until 1923. In November 1964 Coventry City Council bought Coombe Abbey with 150 acres (0.61 km2) of land. The park was opened to the public in 1966. Coombe Abbey was used as the outside of the Mayor's house in the 2009 film Nativity!, starring Martin Freeman it was also used for filming the pilot of The Wrong Funeral in 2013
● Coughton Court The Coughton estate has been owned by the Throckmorton family since 1409. The estate was acquired through marriage to the De Spinney family. Coughton was rebuilt by Sir George Throckmorton, the first son of Sir Robert Throckmorton of Coughton Court by Catherine Marrow, daughter of William Marrow of London.The great gatehouse at Coughton was dedicated to King Henry VIII by Throckmorton, a favorite of the King. Throckmorton would become notorious due to his almost fatal involvement in the divorce between King Henry and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Throckmorton favoured the queen and was against the Reformation. Throckmorton spent most of his life rebuilding Coughton. In 1549, when he was planning the windows in the great hall, he asked his son Nicholas to obtain from the heralds the correct tricking (colour abbreviations) of the arms of his ancestors' wives and his own cousin and niece by marriage Queen Catherine Parr (see gallery drawing). The costly recusancy (refusal to attend Anglican Church services) of Robert Throckmorton and his heirs kept down later rebuilding, so that much of the house still stands largely as he left it. After Throckmorton's death in 1552, Coughton passed to his eldest son, Robert. Robert Throckmorton and his family were practicing Catholics therefore the house at one time contained a priest hole, a hiding place for priests during the period when Catholics were persecuted by law in England, from the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The Hall also holds a place in English history for its roles in both the Throckmorton Plot of 1583 to murder Queen Elizabeth I of England, and the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, although the Throckmorton family were themselves only indirectly implicated in the latter, when some of the Gunpowder conspirators rode directly there after its discovery. The house has been in the ownership of the National Trust since 1946. The family, however, hold a 300-year lease and previously managed the property on behalf of the National Trust. However, in 2007 the house reverted to management by the National Trust. The management of the property is renewed every 10 years. The current tenant is Clare McLaren-Throckmorton, known professionally as Clare Tritton QC.
● Clopton House The Manor of Clopton was granted to the eponymous family in the 13th century and in 1492 was owned by Hugh Clopton then Lord Mayor of London. In the late 16th century Joyce Clopton daughter of William Clopton (1538-1592), (a recusant Catholic), and heiress to the estate, married Sir George Carew (later Baron Carew and Earl of Totnes). They had no issue, and the estate fell to their nephew, Sir John Clopton. Thereafter the manor passed by marriage through the female line to the Partheriche, Boothby and Ingram families; the latter two changed their name to Clopton. A manor house existing on the site in 1450 was owned by John Clopton, Alderman of the Trinity Guild of Coventry, and was rebuilt in the 16th century. The present house is a 17th-century creation by Sir John Clopton around the core of the 16th-century manor, with 19th-century extensions and improvements. The earliest part of the house on the north was substantially rebuilt in the 1840s. The south and east wings date from 1665-70 in the Restoration style. The south front is two storyed with attics and dormers. It has seven bays, the projecting central three being pedimented. The pediment over the entrance carries the Clopton family crest. The east wing is a similar but unpedimented seven bay range. The entrance porch bears an inscription FHH 1904. The Cloptons sold the estate in 1824 to the Meynells,who sold it again in 1870 to George Lloyd of Welcombe House. His nephew Charles Thomas Warde (High Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1846) carried out the significant extensions of the 1840s and also built the Grade II listed coachhouse and Clopton Tower, a Grade II listed belvedere in the grounds. In 1872 the estate was acquired by Sir Arthur Hodgson, High Sheriff in 1881. On the death of his son Rev Francis H Hodgson (FHH) in 1930 the estate was broken up. In 1605 Ambrose Rookwood, a Gunpowder Plot conspirator, lived in the house.
● Coton House is a late 18th-century country house at Churchover, near Rugby, Warwickshire. The Manor of Coton was held before the Dissolution of the Monasteries by the monks of Coombe Abbey. In 1551 the estate was sold to the Dixwell family and a moated manor house was built on the monastic remains. On the death of Sir William Dixwell in 1757 the estate passed to his nephew William Dixwell Grimes, whose son Abraham Grimes in 1787 replaced the old manor house with the present house built to designs by architect Samuel Wyatt. In 1874 the estate, then 10,000 acres (40 km2), was sold to Francis Arkwright. Much of the land was sold and in 1881 the house was let out to Arthur James His widow Venetia bought it in 1936. After her death it was converted in 1948 for use as a corporate training centre and staff hostel. From 1948 to 1968, Coton House served as a hostel for apprentices and students employed by a nearby Rugby industrial company (initially BTH which was part of the AEI group, and which was taken over by GEC in 1967).
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● Dunsmore House
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● Ettington ParkThe site was occupied by a manor house for several centuries before the construction of the current building. Before the reign of Henry III, the nearby estate of Lower Ettington was the principal seat of the Ferrers family, who later moved their seat to Shirley, Derbyshire. According to Dryden, Sir Ralph Shirley leased the manor in 1509 to John and Agnes Underhill, for a term of 80 years. His son, Francis, made another lease for a term of 100 years to the same family in 1541, the lease ending in 1641. During Francis Shirley's time the manor house may have been rebuilt, or at least modernised. The lease of Ettington came to an end in 1641 in the lifetime of Sir Charles Shirley, who entered into possession of it in 1642. Extensive repairs occurred under him; a large part of the building was taken down and a smaller one constructed with the original materials. About 1740, and again in 1767, additions were made by George Shirley. His grandson, Evelyn John Shirley, made alterations in 1824. It was restored by John Prichard for Evelyn Shirley in 1858–63, in the advanced Early English Style. The hall is an 1858-62 re-modelling of an earlier house, probably mid 17th-century with mid 18th-century additions. In the late 20th-century further alterations and additions were carried out. It is constructed in yellow and grey banded limestone ashlar with a roof is made of stone slate. Ettington Park was used for exterior shots of "Hill House" in the 1963 horror film The Haunting. Production designer Elliot Scott was sent around the country to look at a list of country houses, and director Robert Wise personally selected Ettington Park.[ Some of the cast and crew were housed in Ettington Park during exterior shooting However, the location did not sit well with Harris and Bloom who upon arriving at the house thought it was "scary looking outside", and Wise had to reassure them. However, the interior sets were constructed and shot at the MGM-British Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire rather than Ettington Hall. When in 2010, Cinema Retro magazine hosted a screening of the film at Ettington Park, actor Richard Johnson stated that he had never actually stepped foot in the hall during filming, and that this was the first occasion he had been inside the premises. Richard C. Keenan describes the house exterior in the film as a "terrifying structure, a perception enhanced with the slight distortion and stark intensity of a wide-angle camera lens and infrared film stock." The hall is reputedly haunted. Inside the hall, many paranormal incidents have been reported such as the ghost of Edward Shirley; appearance of a candle floating in the air over the neo-Elizabethan style oak mantelpiece; poltergeist incidents of books flying in the library; an Edwardian lady seen sitting near the bay window of the Great Drawing room; the ghost of Mary, the servant girl in the Oak Room; the ghost of a monk in the church; and the long, cold gallery creating an eerie feeling of being watched. DJs of the BBC Coventry & Warwickshire radio station spent the night in the hall's Great Drawing room and said that they did not feel the presence of ghosts.
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● Farnborough Hall is a country house just inside the borders of Warwickshire, England near to the town of Banbury, (grid reference SP4349). The Holbech family endowed it to the National Trust in 1960, and is still run and lived in by Geoffrey Holbech's daughter Caroline Beddall and her family. It is a Grade I listed building. The Holbech family acquired the Farnborough estate in 1684 and the honey-coloured two-storey stone house was built soon after. Major changes to the property occurred between 1745 and 1750 when the entrance front was remodelled and the rococo plasterwork was added to the interior. This work was carried out by William Holbech who wanted a suitable setting for the sculpture and art he had brought back from his Grand Tour. He most likely used designs by his close friend Sanderson Miller, an architect, who lived a few miles away. Long Palladian facades with sash windows, pedimented doorways and a balustraded roofline were added to the earlier classical west front.
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● Guy's Cliffe has been occupied since Saxon times and derives its name from the legendary Guy of Warwick. Guy is supposed to have retired to a hermitage on this site, this legend led to the founding of a chantry. The chantry was established in 1423 as the Chapel of St Mary Magdelene and the rock-carved stables and storehouses still remain. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII the site passed into private hands. The current, ruined house dates from 1751 and was started by Samuel Greatheed, a West India merchant and Member of Parliament for Coventry 1747-1761. The estate also comprised a mill, stables, kitchen garden and land as far as Blacklow Hill. Blacklow Hill is north-west of the house. It is the site of an ancient settlement and the location of Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall's murder. In 1308 Edward II travelled to Boulogne to marry Isabella, leaving Piers Gaveston, a Gascon knight to act as regent. Resentment against Edward's rule and Gaveston's position of power grew, some barons began to insist Gaveston be banished. Edward could do little to prevent Gaveston being captured in 1312 under the orders of the Earl of Lancaster and his allies. He was captured first by the Earl of Warwick, whom he was seen to have offended, and handed over to two Welshmen. They took him to Blacklow Hill and murdered him; one ran him through the heart with his sword and the other beheaded him. In 1821 Bertie Greatheed erected a stone cross to mark the execution of Piers Gaveston, "Gaveston's Cross" and later commented in his diary that he could read the inscription on the cross with his telescope from the house. The house was used as a hospital during World War I and in the World War II became a school for evacuated children. Guy's Cliffe estate was broken up and sold in 1947. In 1952 the mill became a pub and restaurant and was named The Saxon Mill, the stables became a riding school, the kitchen garden became a nursery, all of which still exist today. A toll house also stood by the road to the north of the Saxon Mill, but this was demolished in the mid 20th century. The new owner of the house intended to convert it into a hotel, but these plans came to nothing and the house fell into disrepair. In 1955 the house was purchased by Aldwyn Porter and the chapel leased to the Freemasons, establishing a connection with the Masons that remains today. The roof had fallen in by 1966. In 1992 during the filming of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (The Last Vampyre) a fire scene got out of control and seriously damaged the building, leading to an insurance claim. English Heritage has given the building grade II listed status. Two new houses were built within the grounds, Heron House and Guy's Cliffe House (note: the ruined house and by the 1980s, when the parishes merged, the population of the Parish of Guy's Cliffe was no more than 4 people. The new boundary split the original estate: the stables and nursery are not within the current Parish of Leek Wootton & Guy's Cliffe, but the house, mill and modern homes are.
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● Honington Hall was in the ownership of the Priory of Coventry until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century. In 1540 it was granted by the Crown to Robert Gibbes. The estate was sold by the Gibbes family in about 1670 to Henry Parker who in 1696 succeeded to the Parker Baronetcy and an estate at Melford Hall, Suffolk. The present house was built by Parker in 1682 but was sold by Parker's grandson in 1737 to Joseph Townsend who carried out considerable alterations and extensions in the mid 18th century. The Georgian style house has a number of fine features including round headed niches over the ground floor windows of the east front which contain busts of Roman Emperors. The Townsends held the estate until 1905 when it passed by marriage to Sir Grey Skipwith Bt ( see Skipwith baronets). Later the estate became the seat of the Wiggin family. The house is not generally open to the public but may be visited by prior group arrangement
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● Ilmington Manor - Elizabethan Cotswold stone manor house, built 1590-1600 for Sir Thomas Andrews.
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Image Geograph © Copyright Angela Tuff and licensed for reuse underCreative Commons Licence.
● Kenilworth Castle
Kenilworth Castle is located in Kenilworth in Warwickshire, England. It was built from Norman to Tudor times. Kenilworth castle was the subject of the six-month-long Siege of Kenilworth in 1266, believed to be the longest siege in English history, and formed a base for Lancastrian operations in the Wars of the Roses. Kenilworth was also the scene of the removal of Edward II from the English throne, the French insult to Henry V in 1414 and the Earl of Leicester's lavish reception of Elizabeth I in 1575.
The castle was built over several centuries. Founded in the 1120s around a powerful Norman great tower, the castle was significantly enlarged by King John at the beginning of the 13th century. Huge water defences were created by damming the local streams, and the resulting fortifications proved able to withstand assaults by land and water in 1266. John of Gaunt spent lavishly in the late 14th century, turning the medieval castle into a palace fortress designed in the latest perpendicular style. The Earl of Leicester then expanded the castle once again, constructing new Tudor buildings and exploiting the medieval heritage of Kenilworth to produce a fashionable Renaissance palace.
Kenilworth was partly destroyed by Parliamentary forces in 1649 to prevent it being used as a military stronghold. Ruined, only two of its buildings remain habitable today. The castle became a tourist destination from the 18th century onwards, becoming famous in the Victorian period following the publishing of Sir Walter Scott's novel Kenilworth in 1821. English Heritage has managed the castle since 1984. The castle is classed as a Grade I listed building and as a Scheduled Monument, and is open to the public.
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● Mary Arden's House also known as Mary Arden's Farm, is the farmhouse owned by Mary Shakespeare, the mother of Elizabethan playwright William Shakespeare. Located in the village of Wilmcote, about three miles from Stratford-upon-Avon, the house has been maintained in good condition because it had been a working farmhouse over the centuries. It was bought by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in 1930 and refurnished in the Tudor style. In 2000 it was discovered that the building preserved as Mary Arden's house had belonged to a friend and neighbour Adam Palmer and the house was renamed Palmer's Farm. The house that had belonged to the Arden family which was near to Palmer's Farm had been acquired by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in 1968 for preservation as part of a farmyard without knowing its true provenance. In spite of its Victorian brick, the house and farm reflect life in the 16th century, specifically 1573. The farm keeps many rare breeds of animals including Mangalitza and Tamworth pigs, Cotswold sheep, Long Horn cattle, Baggot and Golden Guernsey goats, geese and birds of prey including a Hooded Vulture
● Maxstoke Castle was built by Sir William de Clinton, 1st Earl of Huntingdon, in 1345 to a rectangular plan, with octagonal towers at each angle, a gatehouse on the east, and a residential range on the west, the whole surrounded by a broad moat. Additions were made by Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham who acquired it in 1437 by exchanging it for other manors in Northamptonshire. The castle is unusual in that it has survived largely intact. Amongst the antiquities there is a 15th-century chair upon which Henry VII was crowned after the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, a table owned by Sir Everard Digby (cousin to the Digbys of Coleshill) around which the Gunpowder Plot was planned in 1605, and a 'Whispering Door' (two doors with a common jamb) brought from Kenilworth Castle. The present family, the Fetherston-Dilkes, first came into possession in the 17th century. During the Civil War Maxstoke was garrisoned for Parliament.The first known Governor of Maxstoke Castle in 1642/43 was a Captain Layfield. The garrison musters reveal that between March 1644 to October 1645, the Captain of the garrison was Mr Henry Kendall Sen. lord of the manor of Austrey. His son Henry Kendall Jun. was his lieutenant. The garrison included several of their Austrey tenants: William Smart (a joiner's son), Henry Orton, Henry Spencer and John Crispe. In the 18th century William Dilke of Maxstoke married Mary Fetherstone-Leigh of Packwood House near Knowle. Since then the two families and houses have been closely linked.
● Merevale Hall is a private country house in Merevale, near Atherstone, Warwickshire. It is a Grade II● listed building. The Manor of Merevale was granted in 1540 to Sir Walter Devereux.The Devereux estates were sequestered in 1601 following the attainder and execution of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex for treason. The estate was purchased by Edward Stratford in 1649 and became the seat of the Stratford family. In 1767 the Merevale sole heiress Penelope Stratford married Richard Geast who had inherited the neighbouring estate of Blyth Hall from his maternal uncle John Dugdale in 1749 and who in 1799 adopted the surname Dugdale. The old 17th century seven bayed manor house was rebuilt in 1840 in monumental style to designs by architect Edward Blore. Particular features include a square central tower and four slim corner towers topped by cupolas. The Dugdales later became Dugdale baronets, of Merevale and Blyth. The family remain in residence at both estates. The Hall is not open to the public.
● Middleton Hall (grid reference SP193982) is a Grade II● listed building dating back to medieval times. It is situated in the North Warwickshire district of the county of Warwickshire in England, south of Fazeley and Tamworth and on the opposite side of the A4091 road to Middleton village. The Manor of Middleton was held by the de Freville family until 1418 and came to the Willoughbys by virtue of the marriage of heiress Margaret de Freville to Sir Hugh Willoughby. The Willoughbys had extensive estates in Nottinghamshire and elsewhere, their principal seat being Wollaton Hall, Nottingham. In the mid 17th century the hall was home to Francis Willughby, the famed mathematician and naturalist, and his descendants the Lords Middleton. The hall was also for a time the home of the Parson-naturalist John Ray. The Georgian West Wing dates from the late 18th century. In 1812 the estates and the Barony passed to Henry Willoughby of the Birdsall, Yorkshire branch of the family and Middleton declined in importance in family terms. The Middleton and Wollaton estates were sold in the 1920s. The hall was allowed to fall into disrepair over many years and since 1980 is being restored by a charitable trust. Much work has been done on the main hall, walled garden, Tudor barn complex (now craft shops) and a 16th-century jettied building, which was close to collapse before restoration commenced. The surrounding 40 acres (160,000 m²) of land include two walled gardens, the largest man-made lake in Warwickshire, much woodland and Middleton Lakes RSPB reserve.
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● Nailcote Hall Built in 1640, Nailcote Hall was completed just before the start of the English Civil War. Its name is believed to be derived from the Norman-French word for armourer. The house was damaged during the war by Cromwell’s troops before the assault on Kenilworth Castle, but subsequently restored after a repair bill was honoured by the Parliamentarians. The Lant family made Nailcote Hall their home for some 300 years, and during this time the property saw many alterations, including a Georgian wing which was added in 1780. When restoration work was carried out more recently[when?], a priest hole was discovered in what is now the Oak Room restaurant.
● Newbold Revel originally Fenny Newbold, was acquired by the Revel family around 1235. It descended to Sir John Revel, MP and on his death with no son passed to his daughter Alice, who had married Esquire John Malory of Winwick, Northamptonshire. Their son was Sir Thomas Malory, author of Morte d'Arthur and MP for Warwickshire from 1443 to circa 1446. His great-grandson Nicholas sold the property, after which it passed through a succession of private hands, including those of the builder of the present house, Sir Fulwar Skipwith.
The estate was purchased in 1863 by Edward Wood and descended to his grandson, a great cricket lover, before being acquired in 1898 by Colonel Heath, a Staffordshire brick manufacturer and in 1911 by the Austrian banker, Leo Bonn. After Bonn's death in 1929 the property passed in 1931 to the Seventh-day Adventists for use as a missionary training college but was requisitioned in 1942 for use as an agent training establishment during World War II. After the war it was purchased by the Sisters of Charity of St. Paul as a Catholic teacher training college, and sold in 1978 to British Telecom. In 1985 it was taken over by the Prison Service for its current use as the Prison Service College.
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● Offchurch Bury In the 13th century the manor was held by Coventry Priory, a confirmation of the original charter by Henry III in 1267 implies that the place was in possession of this priory from its foundation in 1043. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the manor was acquired in 1542 by Sir Edmund Knightley. The family held the manor until after the death in 1911 of Jane Knightley, wife of Heneage Finch, 6th Earl of Aylesford (d.1871). The manor was purchased afterwards by Joseph Watson, a soap manufacturer from Leeds, in 1922 created 1st Baron Manton of Compton Verney. Watson used the estate for his venture into industrialised agriculture, but continued to live at Linton Spring, near Wetherby, Yorkshire, until 1921 when he purchased the mansion at Compton Verney, near Offchurch, where he intended to reside, yet he died unexpectedly in 1922, of a heart attack whilst hunting and was buried at Offchurch. His son and heir Miles resided for a while at Compton Verney, whilst his widow Claire, Baroness Manton, lived at Offchurch Bury until her death in 1936, when the manor was purchased by Harry Johnson, a textile manufacturer from Coventry and Macclesfield, whose descendants still occupy the property in 2011
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● Packington Hall is a 17th-century mansion situated at Great Packington, near Meriden, Warwickshire, England the seat of the Earl of Aylesford. It is a Grade II● listed building. It was built in 1693 for Sir Clement Fisher on whose death in 1729 the Packington estate passed to his daughter Mary, who married the Earl of Aylesford, Heneage Finch. The Park was designed by Capability Brown.
In 1772, the house was much extended and improved in Palladian style to designs by architect Joseph Bonomi. It was severely damaged by fire in 1979 but has since been fully restored. The house is not generally open to the public but is available by arrangement for conferences and functions. An earlier manor house (Packington Old Hall) and an 18th-century parish church St James' Church, Great Packington stand on the estate.
● Packwood House The house began as a modest timber-framed farmhouse constructed for John Fetherston between 1556 and 1560. The last member of the Fetherston family died in 1876. In 1904, and the house was purchased by Birmingham industrialist Alfred Ash. It was inherited by Graham Baron Ash (Baron in this case being a name not a title) in 1925, who spent the following two decades creating a house of Tudor character. He purchased an extensive collection of 16th- and 17th-century furniture, some obtained from nearby Baddesley Clinton. The great barn of the farm was converted into a Tudor-style hall with sprung floor for dancing, and was connected to the main house by the addition of a Long Gallery in 1931. In 1941, Ash donated the house and gardens to the National Trust in memory of his parents but continued to live in the house until 1947 when he moved to Wingfield Castle. The famous Yew Garden containing over 100 trees was laid out in the mid-17th century by John Fetherston, the lawyer.
● Polesworth Abbey was founded in the 9th century by St. Modwena and King Egbert. The first abbess was Edgytha (daughter of King Egbert, now St. Editha).
The site of the Abbey is a Scheduled Ancient Monument although apart from the church and the gatehouse and the restored ruins of the cloister very little remains visible. The 12th century Abbey church, now the parish church of St Editha is a Grade II● listed building. The 14th century gatehouse is both a Grade II● listed building and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. It has recently been restored and renovated to provide apartments available for rent.
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● Regent Hotel is a hotel in the town of Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England. In recent times the hotel, like the town, has seen a decreasing number of guests from the celebrity and nobility circles. It has however had a colourful past with many famous guests and interesting events and is still by far the finest and most famous hotel in the town. It is located right in the centre of the town on The Parade, not far from the town's other attractions and only a ten-minute walk away from Leamington Spa railway station. The first steps towards building the hotel came in 1809 with the purchase of the triangular plot of land to build on, which cost £1,000, quite a sum in those days. The foundation stone was laid some eight years later on 18 July 1818 by the granddaughter of the original landowner. The hotel was officially opened on 19 August 1819. It was during the early years that the hotel had its most famous visitor, Princess Victoria, the future Queen Victoria. In 1830 the princess, age 11, stayed overnight at the hotel with her father. Eight years later from the balcony of the hotel it was announced that Victoria, now Queen, had allowed the prefix Royal on its name, which the town still bears to the day. In these early days the hotel was one of the largest in Europe with over 100 rooms. In these early days the hotel was not just a place where the wealthy tourists stayed whilst 'taking the waters' but it was also an important meeting place for local gentry and landowners, those who were to shape the future of the town. The first of the Regent Hotel's famous set of sporting visitors stayed at the hotel on 8 April 1882. This group of aristocratic men had held a few other meetings around the county and had formed a cricket team. It was on this date however that Warwickshire County Cricket Club formally came into existence. In the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, according to Billy Wright's autobiography Captain of England the England national football team used to meet before they travelled to away matches abroad. More recently the cast and crew of the British comedy Keeping Up Appearances including Patricia Routledge, Clive Swift and Geoffrey Hughes stayed at the hotel whilst filming in Leamington.
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● Shuckburgh Hall(now Northamptonshire)is a privately owned country house mansion at Lower Shuckburgh, near Daventry, Northamptonshire. The estate has been the home of the Shuckburgh family since the 12th century. The house, which has Grade II● listed building status, is not generally open to the public. The house has its origins in the 14th and 15th centuries but has been much altered and extended over many years. The main front, designed by Henry Edward Kendall Jr. in an Italianate style, was built onto the old house in 1844.
● St Michael's Leper Hospital The remaining ruins of St Michael's Leper Hospital, a mediaeval hospital, lie in a patch of scrubland in the Saltisford area in the north of the town of Warwick, England, and are of the last remaining leper hospital in England. The hospital, which was founded by Roger, Earl of Warwick in about 1135, is classified by English Heritage as a scheduled monument. The remains of two of the hospital buildings can still be seen on the site - a chapel and the 15th century, two-storey Master's House. They are both grade II● listed buildings. The hospital was founded by Roger de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Warwick, in the vicinity of a church of the same name towards the end of the reign of Henry I of England, in about 1135. The warden was a priest. In the 15th century the chapel was probably rebuilt after its parish was merged with the Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick. The half-timbered, two-storey Master's House was also constructed around this time.
● Stoneleigh Abbey is a large country mansion situated to the southwest of the village of Stoneleigh, Warwickshire, England. It is a Grade I listed building.
The Abbey was founded by the Cistercians in 1154. but very little trace remains of the original Abbey buildings except for the 14th century Gatehouse.
After the Dissolution of the Monasteries the estate was acquired by Sir Thomas Leigh, Lord Mayor of London in 1558, and a house was built ( which now forms the north and west wings of the present house) on the site of the monastic buildings. It was the home of the Leigh family from 1561 to 1990. Between 1714 and 1726 a new palatial four story fifteen bay west wing was built to designs by architect Francis Smith of Warwick and provides an impressive range of State apartments. The adjacent stables and riding school block and the conservatory are separately listed as Grade II● . In 1996 Lord Leigh transferred the ownership of Stoneleigh Abbey and its 690-acre (279 ha) grounds to a charitable trust, and then between 1996 and 2000 it was extensively renovated with the help of grants including a £7.3 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and additional grants of more than £3 million from English Heritage fund and the European Union. The upstairs floors were converted into private apartments by Kit Martin. The property has access to the public.
● Stoneton Manor is a hamlet and manor in Warwickshire, England. It lies just to the northeast of Wormleighton. It was documented in the Domesday Book. From the late 15th century onwards the wealthy Spencer family owned land here, and owned the manor in conjunction with nearby Wormleighton Manor. Little remains of the original village, which lies in a field next to the manor. The moat has been restored to Stoneton Manor, using water supplied from a nearby spring. A windfarm with 8-13 turbines has been proposed in the vicinity since June 2012.
● Studley Castle was owned by the Lyttleton family and was bequeathed by Philip Lyttleton to his niece Dorothy, who married Francis Holyoake. Their son Francis Lyttleton Holyoake, (High Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1834), inherited in 1833 the Ribston Hall, Yorkshire estates of a business partner and changed his name to Holyoake-Goodricke (see Holyoake-Goodricke Baronets). The sale of the Yorkshire property financed the building of a new mansion at Studley.
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● Umberslade Hall 
Image above - © Copyright David Stowell and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
17th-century mansion converted into residential apartments situated near Tanworth in Arden, Warwickshire. It is a Grade II● listed building. The Archer family were granted the manor of Umberslade by Henry II in the 12th century and retained possession for some 600 years. The old manor house was replaced between 1695 and 1700 when Smith of Warwick built the new mansion for Andrew Archer, Member of Parliament for Warwickshire. The estate was sold in 1826 and from 1850 was leased by George Frederic Muntz, Member of Parliament for Birmingham. After his death in 1857 his son George Frederick bought the estate and much enlarged and improved the Hall. During this time Muntz junior had a church built on the estate, Umberslade Baptist Church, which exists to this day separately to the Hall. In 1881 the household comprised thirty including thirteen resident servants. Frederick Ernest Muntz who succeeded to the estate in 1898 served as High Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1902 and as Deputy Lieutenant. The estate, much reduced, remains in the ownership of the Muntz family.
- George Frederick Muntz 1794-1857
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● Walton Hall, Warwickshire is a 16th-century country mansion at Walton, near Wellesbourne, Warwickshire, once owned by Lord Field and the entertainer Danny La Rue, now in use as an hotel which is now part of The Hotel Collection. It is a Grade II● listed building. The Manor of Walton was owned by the Lestrange family from the 15th century. In 1541 Barbara Lestrange, heiress of Walton married Robert Mordaunt. Their son Lestrange Mordaunt was created 1st Baronet Mordaunt in 1611. In 1858 Sir Charles Mordaunt, 10th Baronet retained architect Sir George Gilbert Scott to design a new mansion house in the Gothic Revival style. The current Walton Hall has been around since the mid 18th Century but it sits on the site of several older manor houses and its cellars date back to Elizabeth I’s time. It was Sir Charles Mordaunt who built the Georgian Manor house that guests stay in today, and the matching chapel where wedding blessings take place. The house was completed in 1862 and became infamous through a divorce scandal involving Sir Charles and his wife Harriet several years later. In the mid-20th century, the property was owned by the M.O.D. and used as a training camp for Army Cadets prior to being sold to Lord Field, who restored the main building to be used as a family home. The house was restored by Lord Leslie Charles Field in the 1970s and used as a family home. it was then sold to entertainer Danny LaRue who converted it to be used as an hotel. The adjacent 1860s stable block (Grade II listed) is time-share accommodation.
● Warwick Castle - medieval castle developed from an original built by William the Conqueror in 1068. The original wooden motte-and-bailey castle was rebuilt in stone in the 12th century. It was used as a stronghold until the early 17th century, when it was granted to Sir Fulke Greville by James I in 1604. Greville converted it to a country house and it was owned by the Greville family, who became earls of Warwick in 1759, until 1978 when it was bought by the Tussauds Group.
● Welcombe Hotel Some of the lands at Welcombe, which are recorded as part of the manor of Old Stratford as far back as 1182 CE, were leased for 99 years in 1537 by the Bishop of Worcester to John Combe. By 1590, the lands had passed to John Combe, his grandson. John Combe junior died childless in 1614, causing the property to pass to a nephew, William Combe. In 1663, William Combe settled the estate on his grandson, Sir Combe Wagstaffe. William died in 1667 and his grandson died in the following year. The estate ultimately came into the possession of the Clopton family, into which one of William's three daughters, Martha, had married. Various conveyances of the lands took place in the 18th century and at one point — between 1760 and 1768 — they were divided into three parts. The estate had been acquired by John Lloyd of Snitterfield by 1777[a] and it later passed to his oldest son, George, who lived there until dying at the age of 63 in 1831.Both of John Lloyd's sons, George and John Gamaliel Lloyd, served as High Sheriff of Warwickshire, in 1806 and 1832, respectively. George having died unmarried, John Gamaliel inherited the estate on the death of his brother. In turn, the new owner died unmarried in 1837.By 1842, the estate was in the hands of Mark Philips, a Manchester businessman and Member of Parliament. Philips was High Sheriff in 1851. In about 1866 he commissioned Thomas Newby to build a new mansion house in a Neo-Jacobean style to designs by architect Henry Clutton. This project was completed in 1869. Philips died in 1873, leaving the estate of almost 3,400 acres (14 km2) to his brother, Robert Needham Philips. On Robert's death in 1890, the property was inherited by Caroline, his daughter, who married Sir George Otto Trevelyan
● Wolston Priory was a Benedictine priory near Wolston in Warwickshire, England. The earthwork remains of the priory are a Scheduled Ancient Monument. A present grade II● listed house is based on the remains of the rectory. The priory was established between 1086 and 1194 on land granted by Hubert Boldran to the Benedictine Abbey of St-Pierre-sur-Dives in Sees, France. It was of a modest size and run down by 1388 and by 1394 was transferred to the Carthusians at Coventry. After the Dissolution it was purchased by Roger Wigston, who was probably responsible for the renovation of the rectory building as a dwelling house.
In this house, known now as Priory Farm, some of the Martin Marprelate tracts attacking the episcopacy of the Anglican Church were secretly printed in a cellar. The building remained in the Wigston family until Roger Wigston’s death in 1608, when the property was inherited by his grandson, Sir Peter Wentworth. Sold in the 18th century by the descendants of Fisher Wentworth, it was later acquired by the Wilcox family who retained it until circa 1926.
● Wolvey Hall was rebuilt in 1889 using material from an earlier house built in 1677 and also includes fragments from an even earlier building. In the mid-1700s the house was owned by the Arnold family, who could trace family ownership of the manor of Wolvey back to Sir Thomas de Wolvey (died 1315). It has been owned by the Coape-Arnolds since Georgeana, daughter of George Henry Arnold, married James Coape of Goldhanger, Essex in 1840. In 1891 Henry Fraser James Coape-Arnold, a catholic convert, built the chapel at the Hall which served the Catholic residents of the area until the early 1920s. The hall is currently in the possession of the Freeman family by descent from Mary Freeman née Burbidge.
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References and Sources
Warwickshire Specific
General
- Stravaiging.com
- Secret Scotland
- Canmore
- Historic Scotland
- National Trust
- English Heritage
- WIKI List of country houses in the UK
- Britain's Finest
- Britain Express
- Lankdmark Trust
- Historic Houses Association - represents 1,500 houses in the UK
- Hudson's Historic Houses and Gardens - UK - guidebook of over 2,000 houses open to the public
- The DiCamillo Companion to British & Irish Country Houses - database of over 7,000 houses
- Lost Heritage - A Memorial to the Lost Country Houses of England - list of over 1,700 houses
- National Trust for Historic Preservation - online database of historic houses in the United States
- WIKI Historic Houses Association
- Historic Houses Association
- WIKI Treasure Houses of England
- List of country houses in the United Kingdom
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