Within Castle Bromwich was the separate manor of Park Hall. For hundreds of years the Arden family’s moated manor house stood on the land now covered by the Parkfields estate.

Edward Arden – hanged, drawn and quartered

Their great-great-grandson, Edward Arden was born at Park Hall c1542. Since Henry VIII’s break with Rome, the Ardens had always been one of Warwickshire’s recusant Roman Catholic families. Edward Arden, Sheriff of Warwickshire, married Mary Throckmorton of Coughton Court near Studley, a member of another well-known family of recusants who later became involved in the Gunpowder Plot. It is believed that Edward Arden’s gardener at Park Hall was actually Father Hugh Hall, a Roman Catholic priest in disguise.

Hall is believed to have influenced Edward’s son-in-law, John Somerville to plot against Queen Elizabeth. Somerville, who may not have been of sound mind, talked openly of shooting the Queen and headed for London. However, he was soon discovered, put in the Tower of London and when racked, he confessed and named both his father-in-law and Father Hugh as instigators of the plot.

Following indictment at Warwick, Edward, his wife Mary and daughter Margaret, Somerville’s wife, were imprisoned in the Tower, as was Edward himself who was thrown into the cell known as Little Ease, a windowless room measuring just over one square metre in which it was impossible to either stand or sit. The men were all stretched on the rack to extort confessions of treason. All were then tried at the Guildhall, found guilty and condemned to death, as was Edward’s wife. A week later Somerville was found strangled in his cell, it is believed at his own hand. Edward was hanged, drawn and quartered at Smithfield 20 December 1583 proclaiming that his only crime was the profession of the Catholic religion. Mary Arden was released as was her daughter and, remarkably, Father Hugh Hall.

The heads of Edward Arden and John Somerville were set on spikes on London Bridge.

Robert Arden built a new Park Hall

Robert Arden was the son of Edward and Mary Arden. Around this time a new hall was built down in the valley close to the River Tame. This was probably Robert Arden’s doing. Following his father’s execution, the manor was forfeit to the Crown. It may well be that the old hall had fallen into disuse after his father’s death and that when Robert returned to the manor he had a new hall built. It is not easy to understand why this location was chosen. Although the land here is fertile and well-watered, it is also prone to flooding and is still used as a flood plain for the River Tame.

Robert Arden’s sister, Catherine Arden, married Edward Devereux, 1st Baronet of Castle Bromwich, the son of Viscount Hereford. Sir Edward is credited with the building of the predecessor to the present Castle Bromwich Hall. (There may have been an earlier medieval hall on the same site). The couple’s elaborate tomb may be seen in Aston Parish Church; Sir Edward Devereux died in 1622, his wife Catherine in 1627.

Robert’s grandson, another Robert Arden died in 1643 unmarried and without issue and brought male Arden line at Park Hall to an end.

One of Robert Arden’s sisters, Goditha Arden married the Welsh politician and Royalist colonel, Sir Herbert Price, who took up residence at Park Hall. Sir Herbert was the Master of the Household of King Charles II in 1661 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

That hall was rebuilt in brick in the late 17th century possibly by Sir Herbert Price. The hall was large and built in a Dutch style.

In 1704 the hall and manor were bought from Sir Herbert’s son John by John Bridgeman I.In 1884, Castle Bromwich antiquarian Christopher Chattock wrote of Park Hall: “The place could not be surpassed for natural beauty and romantic interest, being sited opposite a hill that was studded with wild cherries, roses and honeysuckle. The river ‘gentle Theomis’ ran by the garden wall and the bottom of the woods, Park Hall woods were filled with gigantic oaks, ash, beech and firs which overhung and darkened the clear crystal water of the River Tame below.”

By the 20th century the hall had deteriorated to being a farmhouse. And by the Second World War much of it was in ruins except for one wing which was still occupied by a farm worker. In living memory there was a holloway leading down from the old moated site to the farm by the river. Most of the remaining buildings were demolished by 1970 although some evidence of brick structures could still be seen on the ground after that date.

The site is now part of Park Hall Nature Reserve and inaccessible to the public.

For hundreds of years the Arden’s moated manor house stood on the land now covered by the Parkfields estate near the junction of Faircroft Road and Parkfield Drive.

The family traces its descent from one of the great landowners of Anglo-Saxon England. Turchill of Warwick was of Viking descent; he was the nephew of the Earl of Mercia and had been the Sheriff of Warwick under King Edward the Confessor. Unlike most of the other Anglo-Saxon nobles, he had not risen in revolt against William the Conqueror after 1066 and he was thus one of only two Anglo-Saxon lords in Warwickshire to keep their lands after the Norman Conquest.

From the 14th century, when Sir Henry de Arden was head of the senior line of the Arden family, Park Hall was their primary estate.

The manor first appears in records as Park Hall in 1365 but was also known as Le Logge juxta (the lodge next to) Bromwiche. The name derives from the fact that it originated in a deer park held by Roger de Somery in 1291, a descendant of Ansculf of Picquigny of Dudley Castle, who held extensive manors across the Midlands and elsewhere.

A Moated Site

Park Hall was a moated site. Halls at this time were typically substantial timber-framed buildings and particularly prevalent in woodland areas such as the Forest of Arden. Moats may have had a defensive purpose but they were built more as a status symbol, copying the moats of castles. The addition of moats to properties was especially popular from the middle of the13th to the 14th century. The Black Death c1350 effectively brought an end to moat digging.

Deer parks too were symbols of status. The park here is believed to have covered an extensive area to the east of Castle Bromwich and may have included Minworth on the north side of the River Tame. There were parks in Anglo-Saxon England but it was William the Conqueror’s love of hunting that encouraged their popularity among the Norman nobility. By 1200 every self-respecting wealthy landowner had one. By the year 1300 there were some 3000 deer parks in England, especially in area of scattered woodland such as here in the Forest of Arden.

The creation of a deer park necessitated the purchase of a licence from the Crown  and involved a great deal of labour, building banks topped with fences or hawthorn hedges and digging ditches to contain the game.

Parks were also expensive to maintain. Fencing had to be checked daily, deer had to be fed throughout the winter, the young had to be cared for and a constant watch was kept for poachers. It was all expenditure, for the lords did not sell their deer for meat; they were kept for their guests to hunt and to dine on at feasts. If the deer park was at a different location from the lord’s residence, there would be a lodge where the lord and his friends would spend the nights while away on hunting expeditions.

Lords of the Manor

Ralph de Arden, born c1310, married Isabel de Bromwich. Isabel was descended from the first known manorial family of Castle Bromwich, almost certainly the family of the Norman lord who was granted the manor after the Conquest. She would have lived at Castle Bromwich manor which may have been a building on the site of Castle Bromwich Hall.

Their son, Sir Henry de Arden married Ellen / Helena c1375. In 1373 Sir John, descendant of Sir Roger de Somery, granted Park Hall to Sir Henry Arden, after which time Park Hall became the seat of the senior branch of the Arden family. Henry must have been a favourite of his overlord, Sir John de Botetourt of Weoley Castle who released him from all dues and services except for the presentation of a red rose on the Feast of John the Baptist, 24 June. Henry was chosen to represent Warwickshire in Parliament and also served with the Earl of Warwick in Warwickshire early in the Wars of the Roses. He died c1400.

Sir Henry’s brother, Sir Ralph de Arden fought in the army of Edward III with the Earl of Warwick at the siege of Calais in 1346 during the Hundred Years War.

His son, Robert Arden married Elizabeth Clodshale, the daughter and heiress of the wealthy lord of Saltley manor.

Robert was appointed the Sheriff of Leicester and of Warwick and, as a supporter of the Earl of Warwick, sided with him and the Duke of York against Henry VI in the initial stages of the Wars of the Roses.

When York was forced to retreat to Ludlow Castle, Robert was active in raising an army for him. He was captured by the king’s men and found guilty of high treason and executed at Ludlow on 12 August 1452. His wife Elizabeth is represented in effigy on a tomb at Aston parish church.

Their son, Walter Arden was restored to his fortunes on the accession to the throne of the Duke of York’s son Edward IV. Mary Arden, the mother of William Shakespeare, was the daughter of Robert Arden, son of Thomas Arden, younger son of this Walter Arden. He died in 1502 and was buried at Aston church where a window commemorates his wife Eleanor and himself.

Continued as ‘Park Hall (Part 2) – Troubled Times’