Edgbaston Hall, Edgbaston, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

In the later 14th century the Middlemores acquired the manor of Edgbaston by marriage. It remained in their possession for 300 years although they were dispossessed during the Civil War when the Hall was garrisoned for Parliament by Colonel John Fox. At the Restoration the 1700 acre (roughly 700 hectare) estate was returned to Mary, the Middlemore heiress, and her husband Sir John Gage, 'a noted Roman Catholic' (quoted in Heath 1986, 67). In 1688 the Gages' religious beliefs lead to the Hall being burnt by a force of northern troops under Lord Delamere. On the death of Lady Gage the Middlemore inheritance was divided between her two daughters, Edgbaston passing to Bridget, the wife of Thomas Belasyse, Lord Fauconberg. In 1717 they sold the manor to Sir Richard Gough, a wealthy merchant and director of the East India Company, who proceeded to rebuild the still ruinous Hall, impark it, and in 1725 reconstruct the adjoining parish church.

The Goughs retained the estate and lived at Edgbaston for most of the 18th century, and in 1776 Sir Henry Gough, the grandson of the imparker, brought in Lancelot Brown to suggest improvements. Six years later however he married Barbara Calthorpe, and although the Gough-Calthorpes (later the Calthorpe Estate), still retained the estate in 1997, they never again resided at Edgbaston, prefering homes brought to the family by Barbara in 1783. The Hall stood empty until 1786 when a fourteen-year lease was granted to Dr William Withering (died 1799), a physician and botanist who discovered the propitious effects of digitalis. Later tenants included another doctor, a solicitor, and leading local politicians. In 1936 Edgbaston Golf Club took the tenancy; the Hall became the clubhouse, and the park was laid out as a golf course, which it remained in 1997.