After standing empty for several years and in real danger of falling into disrepair, the Grade I listed Jacobean manor house of Castle Bromwich was reopened as a luxury hotel in 2011. For the first time in its very long history visitors are able to enjoy the surroundings hitherto reserved for the landed gentry.
The present Castle Bromwich Hall dates from around 1710 when Sir John Bridgeman II had an earlier building enlarged and extended. That hall had been built in 1599 by Sir Edward Devereux and there is tantalising, though inconclusive evidence, that it too may have replaced a medieval manor house on the same site.
Before the Norman Conquest there had been an Anglo-Saxon lord of the manor, though where he had his dwelling is unknown. It would certainly have been on the higher ground somewhere near the Chester Road. But with the imposition of a Norman lord on the manor after 1066, a small wooden castle was built on top of a mound (Pimple Hill) overlooking the Chester Road ford of the River Tame.
The resident lord took ‘de Bromwich’ as his family name and would have moved from the castle, which is known to have been too small to act as living quarters for a lord and his family, when it was clear that William the Conqueror’s hold on England was secure. The castle is thought not to have been in use for very long as a military post and later evidence suggests that a timber-framed building stood where the Chelmsley Collector Road now runs; it may have been a successor to the castle.
It is possible, but no means certain, that a manor house was built during the Middle Ages on the same site of the present hall but any evidence would now be buried beneath the hall. However, when Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens were in the process of restoration, archaeological excavations unearthed one single item dating from before the 16th-century date of Edward Devereux’s hall. It was only a small piece of medieval glazed tile, but it must have come from a tiled floor, something of high status and only to be found in churches and the homes of the wealthy.
During the Middle Ages the lordship of Castle Bromwich manor passed by marriage from the de Bromwich family to the de la Roche and then to the Ferrers family of Chartley in Staffordshire. In 1450 Sir William Ferrers died and was succeeded by his daughter Anne, who was married to Sir Walter Devereux of Weobley in Herefordshire.
Sir Edward Devereux and a New Hall
A later Walter Devereux was created Viscount Hereford in 1549 by Edward VI. His youngest son, Sir Edward Devereux, who was created 1st Baronet of Castle Bromwich by James I in 1611, is attributed with building the predecessor of the present Castle Bromwich Hall. However, Edward was at the most only 9 years old in 1599 when the Hall is thought to have been built. His father had died the previous year and it is thought that project may have been organised for him by his older step-nephew, the Earl of Essex.
(Viscount Hereford’s eldest son was created 1st Earl of Essex and his son, 2nd Earl of Essex, was the favourite of Queen Elizabeth I; he was the great nephew of Sir Edward and the two are thought to have had a close relationship. Following an unsuccessful coup Essex was executed at the Tower of London in 1601, the last person to be beheaded there.)
Sir Edward Devereux was a country gentleman, well-off beyond the imaginings of the landless labourers living in the cottages along the Chester Road, but as the youngest son of a noble family, he was certainly not in the top league. He was admitted to Gray’s Inn, probably thanks to an influential relative, possibly Essex, though it is not thought that he ever practised law.
Similarly, he was a Member of Parliament although was never involved in politics and later the High Sheriff of Warwickshire. In 1611 Edward was created 1st Baronet Devereux of Castle Bromwich by King James I.
Edward married Catherine Arden of nearby Park Hall. Her family were recusant Roman Catholics; indeed Catherine’s father, Edward Arden had been hanged, drawn and quartered at Smithfield in London for his alleged involvement in a Papist plot against Queen Elizabeth I. Edward died in 1622, he and his wife are commemorated with an elaborate tomb bearing their effigies in Aston Parish Church.
Lady Hereford, Edward’s mother had died in 1599, and it was then that he set out to build a new manor house in Castle Bromwich. Strange to say, his wife’s brother, Robert Arden, was doing the very same thing at Park Hall a mile and half to the east.
The new hall was built of brick in the contemporary style, a fashionable material then in the ascendancy. It was a two-storey building, square in plan and built around a small courtyard with an entrance hall and first-floor long gallery facing south. Prior to building Castle Bromwich Hall, Sir Edward had lived at Sheldon Hall, Tile Cross and it is thought that his new hall resembled his former residence.
Most of the original features, late 16th / early 17th century, including the arrangement of rooms and corridors, were lost during later alterations by members of the Bridgeman family after 1657. Some original wood panelling has been reset in corridors on the ground floor and in the long gallery, albeit subdivided in the 18th century, is a fine 16th-century fireplace. East of the house are detached outbuildings, the bakehouse, brewery and the laundry, which date from the time of Sir Edward Devereux.
The Bridgemans Take Up Residence
After Sir Edward’s death in 1622 Castle Bromwich descended to Anne Devereux who, in 1657, sold the both the manor and the hall to Orlando Bridgeman. He had a legal background and, although a Royalist supporter, he survived the English Civil Wars and was appointed Lord Keeper of the Great Seal at the Restoration of King Charles II.Sir Orlando bought the estate for his son, Sir John Bridgeman I probably as a marriage gift.
Sir John had the entrance porch wing remodelled by William Wilson and also altered some of the internal arrangements.The porch is dated and has four Corinthian columns and carved stone statues representing Peace and Plenty. In the pediment is the Bridgeman coat of arms. Sir John had immediate alterations carried out on taking over the house and further work done in 1697.
Sir John’s son, also Sir John had a third storey added in 1719 as well as extensive other alterations, including an internal staircase built within the original courtyard. The building as it now appears externally is largely the doing of Sir John Bridgeman II.
Entering the hall from the main south porch, the entrance hall has been divided from the main hall (now the hotel’s main dining room) to the west by an oak screen; the original entrance probably opened straight onto the hall itself. The room is oak panelled and has large fireplace of carved oak. All the woodwork here dates from the 17th century, some of it from the time of the later Devereux, some from the arrival of Sir John Bridgeman I. The stained glass in the windows probably dates from the Sir Edward’s time and shows the arms of his manorial predecessors, Bromwich, de La Roche, Ferrers and Birmingham. The ceiling is by Thomas Rickman c1830.
Other rooms downstairs retain 17th and early 18th century features. Of interest is a small room on the north side with a good ceiling with moulded floral decoration by the renowned London plasterer Edward Gouge, and a fireplace with a fireback dated 1678 bearing the letters IBM; representing John and Mary Bridgeman. The main staircase, which dates from the 17th century, has a ceiling with a classical painting surrounded by moulded plaster foliage. Another staircase was built into the original courtyard in the 18th century to give access to the added third storey.
Facing south on the first floor, the long gallery with its fine carved oak fireplace and oak panelling dates from Sir Edward’s time. The gallery appears to have been subdivided in the 18th century. The ceiling dates from about 1830 and is by Thomas Rickman.
A very large room in the west would have been used as the state bedroom (now the hotel’s bridal suite); it has an elaborate plaster ceiling decorated with scrolls and foliage. Other rooms on the first floor have a variety of panelling, plasterwork and fireplaces dating from the time of Sir John Bridgeman I and Sir John II.
After 1762 the Hall was not occupied by the Bridgemans but let. From 1825-1840 the noted Birmingham-based architect Thomas Rickman was commissioned by George, 2nd Lord Bradford to build a kitchen wing at the north-east corner of the house with a prominent Jacobean-style tower above it. Rickman also carried out extensive internal work probably to bring the building up to contemporary standards and to encourage wealthy tenants. Nearby a dovecote of 1725 was built to accommodate 800 birds. The large stable block fronting the Birmingham Road was built in the 1730s by Sir John II.
