In 1762 Orlando, son of Sir John II inherited, through his wife Anne Newport, the house and estate of Weston Park, Staffordshire. Like Castle Bromwich Hall, Weston is now a Grade I Listed building, but it is on an altogether much larger and grander scale than Castle Bromwich.

The house, designed in the fashionable contemporary Palladian style, had not long been completed. Like Castle Bromwich it is built around a centre court, but with 11 bays to 5 at Castle Bromwich and set in 1000 acres of parkland as against the 10-acre walled garden and no park at Castle Bromwich.

The Bridgemans Move To Weston Park

Little wonder then that Castle Bromwich ceased to be the Bridgeman family seat after 1762 with the family leaving shortly afterwards for Weston. Some of the family portraits and tapestries were taken from Castle Bromwich and still hang at Weston Park.

The Newport titles then passed to the Bridgemans: Orlando’s son, Sir Henry was created 1st Baron Bradford in 1794 and his son, Orlando was created 1st Earl of Bradford in 1811.

Castle Bromwich – TO LET

After the move to Weston, but for two short periods when members of the Bridgeman family were in residence, Castle Bromwich Hall was rented out. In 1773 Sir Henry’s ‘capitol mansion house’ was advertised to let fully furnished at £150 a year (A labourer’s cottage at this time would have been rented out at around 10 shillings a year).

The first tenant of the Hall was Samuel Garbett, a close friend of Mathew Boulton and one of Birmingham foremost citizens, a millionaire by modern standards, making his money from, among many other things, refining precious metals and large scale manufacture of sulphuric acid. Later tenants included the wealthy Birmingham banker John Rotton (one of his partnerships was registered as Rotton, Onions & Co.); Lady Jane Lawley, the widow of Sir Robert Lawley of Canwell Hall, MP for Warwickshire; and Alexander Blair, another wealthy industrialist whose plant at Tipton manufactured alkalis and soap products.

The Bridgemans Return To Castle Bromwich

In 1870 George Bridgeman, eldest son of Orlando 3rd Earl of Bradford, moved into Castle Bromwich Hall. Both he and his wife, Lady Ida née Lumley, daughter of Lord Scarborough, were to live there until their deaths, he in 1915, she in 1936. Until his father’s death, George bore the title of the eldest son, that of Viscount Newport.

When George, then Viscount Newport, brought his new wife to Castle Bromwich, his father was 50 years old and a member of a long-lived family; he would live to the age of 78. Although Weston was a very big house, George clearly wanted to set up on his own account. And 1870 must have been a difficult year at Weston. One of George’s two younger brothers, Gerald, had been appointed ensign in the Prince Consort’s Own Rifle Brigade in 1867; in 1870 he died of a fever at the age of only 23 while travelling in Italy. His father was so grief-stricken that he had built for him at Weston a mausoleum in the form of a Greek temple which still stands. Orlando did not die until 1898 by which time George had lived at Castle Bromwich for 28 years during which time Lady Ida had given birth to seven children.

The Bridgeman family had been involved in politics in local and national government and public service since the time of Orlando Bridgeman who bought Castle Bromwich Hall in 1657. So even when Castle Bromwich was the principal seat, the family would certainly not have spent all their time here. George, educated at Harrow, had served as a captain in the Life Guards and later the Shropshire Yeomanry Cavalry; he was the Conservative MP for North Shropshire 1867-1885. The family owned a London town house in Lowndes Square, one of the most expensive addresses in Belgravia. The Illustrated London News records some of their comings and goings between Weston, Castle Bromwich and London and trips abroad.

Disraeli Stays At The Hall

During the time of George and Lady Ida at the Hall there were many visitors of note. Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli was a friend of the family and visited on more than one occasion; indeed George’s second son, also George, had Beaconsfield as one of his middle names (Disraeli was ennobled as the Earl of Beaconsfield).

In the summer of 1876, for instance, Disraeli stayed at Castle Bromwich with Orlando, 3rd Earl of Bradford accompanied by Lady Selina and her sister Lady Chesterfield, both close confidantes of the Premier. Visitors usually arrived by train at Stechford station from London; they would then be brought by carriage along Stechford Road and Coleshill Road to the hall.

While here the party visited Aston Pleasure Grounds (now the site of Villa Park) and Aston Hall. Lady Bradford laid on a garden party at the hall, inviting a large number of the local nobility and gentry, including Lord and Lady Leigh of Stoneleigh Abbey, the Marquis and Marchioness of Hertford of Ragley Hall, Sir Charles and Lady Adderley of Hams Hall, the Bishops of Worcester and Lichfield, Sir F Peel (son of Robert Peel), industrialist and philanthropist Sir Josiah Mason, the Hon Mr and Mrs Calthorpe of Perry Hall, Joseph Chamberlain MP and Birmingham industrialists Messrs Chance and Avery. Unfortunately the Friday saw a torrential downpour which discouraged many of the guests from coming and the event was transferred from the marquee on the lawn to inside the Hall.

The following day was fine and Disraeli, accompanied by the Countess of Bradford, drove in his carriage about the local area as far as Stechford acknowledging the greetings of onlookers. 80 children from the church school were invited to the Hall for a picnic and games watched with interest by the Prime Minister. They were ‘regaled with a plentiful repast on the lawn’ served by the noble ladies present: Mabel and Florence, two of the daughters of Lord Bradford; the Countess of Chesterfield, the Marchioness of Ailesbury and Miss Bagot of Pype Hayes Hall.

Disraeli wrote to Selina Countess of Bradford that the visit to Castle Bromwich was ‘the happiest visit I ever paid and the memories of which will sustain and animate me in my solitude’ .

Royal Visitors to Castle Bromwich

A week later the Duke of Teck and Princess Mary of Teck stayed at the Hall while attending the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival with the Bradfords. Princess Mary, later Queen Mary, wife of George V, was a close friend of Lady Ida Bridgeman, wife of George, Viscount Newport. From 1901-1902 and 1905-1936 Lady Ida was a Lady of the Bedchamber, official personal attendant to the Queen.

In September 1894 the Duke and Duchess of York stayed at the Hall when they paid a state visit to Birmingham to lay the foundation stone for the new General Hospital in Steelhouse Lane, now the Children’s Hospital. The Duchess planted a tree in the Hall gardens to commemorate the Newports’ silver wedding. They attended Castle Bromwich church for the morning service. In 1897 Prince and Princess Christian were guests when they came to open the hospital.

The 1891 Census records 8 family members living at the Hall with Viscount Newport’s sister’s family as guests. 19 servants were also resident.

Orlando, 3rd Earl of Bradford died in 1898 and was succeeded by George, who continued to live at Castle Bromwich. He died in London in 1915 and was buried at Weston. Lady Ida stayed at Castle Bromwich after his death while her eldest son, Orlando, 5th Earl of Bradford made Weston his seat.

Castle Bromwich was the home of Lady Ida for 60 years; she was the last of the Bridgeman family to live at the hall.

She played an active part in the life of the village and attended the garden fetes held in the grounds in the early 1900s. (Church fetes were still held there until the early 1980s.)

Lady Ida continued to receive royal and distinguished guests after her husband’s death. Her friend Queen Mary visited on more than one occasion, and other visitors to the British Industries Fair were generally entertained at Castle Bromwich Hall.

When Lady Ida died in 1936 the Hall was advertised for sale or to let, furnished or unfurnished. Weston was the family seat and Castle Bromwich was now superfluous. Furthermore, what had been a country retreat was now being encroached on by housing spreading out from Birmingham, much of it on former Bridgeman land and paying the family ground rent. There was little interest in the building and most of the furniture was sold. There was an expression of interest by GEC but, with the outbreak of the Second World War, the transaction was put on hold. During the War the hall was used to billet troops.

After the War, GEC, whose Birmingham base was at Witton, rented the Hall for some years as a residence for their apprentices. By 1960 they left and the empty building began to deteriorate and was subject to vandalism.

Castle Bromwich Hall – FOR SALE

In 1969 the Earl of Bradford sold the Hall to Page Johnson Builders Ltd, as offices for some 70 staff. While the structure of the building remained intact, partitions were inserted into some of the larger rooms to create smaller offices. Page Johnson were bought out in 1972 by Bovis Homes who owned the Hall until 2001. the hall was then bought by the telecommunications company GPN who went bankrupt after two years. Failing to attract a buyer for the hall with all its outbuildings, the estate was split into six lots and successfully put up for auction. The buyer of the Hall itself did not occupy the building and no work was carried out, although the smaller buildings were bought and occupied. In 2007 the Hall was bought by luxury reproduction furniture manufacturers Theodore Alexander Ltd who planned to use it to showcase their wares. However, it was not to be. The hall was again left empty and in danger of deterioration through neglect.

Castle Bromwich Hall Hotel

In 2009 the building was bought by developers Linda and Neil Chen. After extensive consultations with English Heritage and the National Trust, the Hall was sensitively restored. It opened as Castle Bromwich Hall Hotel in 2011.

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.