The History of Castle Bromwich Hall

by Margaret Birkett

In a recent edition of the Gazette we featured an interview with Hodge Hill resident Margaret Birkett who has written unpublished histories of both Castle Bromwich Hall and it’s beautiful Garden (the Hall now being in private ownership whilst the Garden is run by a charitable trust). Margaret has very kindly allowed us to reproduce the first of these two fascinating documents in a serialized form in future editions of The Gazette. Her hope is that Gazette readers will feel sufficiently inspired by the history of this wonderfully evocative old building and it’s historically noteworthy environment, to support the charitable trust and go along to some of the fabulous events that take place in the Garden throughout the year:

The Castle Bromwich area has been inhabited since very early times. Remains of a community which existed more than 3000 years ago have been found on the castle mound. The mound is near the Chelmsley Wood Collector Road. Later the Romans established a camp on the site of the mound and the Normans built a castle there.

Castle Bromwich derives its name from ‘broom’, a broom and ‘wic’ , a dwelling, village or place and thus means a village in the broom or on the heath. ‘Castle’ is a medieval addition, to distinguish it from the other Bromwichs, and refers to the ancient mound situated to the north of Castle Bromwich Hall.

The manor of Castle Bromwich is mentioned in the Doomsday Book (1086) , valued (for tax purposes) at 40 shillings.

In the 14th century the Ferrers family inherited the ‘manor’ of Castle Bromwich, it was a very large family with manors all over the Midlands which they either bought or married into. The overlordship of Bromwich was passed to the Archbishop of Canterbury by Elizabeth, widow of William Ferrers in 1455. However her daughter or grand daughter married Walter Devereux. The Devereux family retained Castle or Magna Bromwich until it was purchased in 1657 by the Bridgeman family.

The New Hall

Sir Edward Devereux, younger son of the first Viscount Hereford; the rest of the family estates remained with his nephew, the 1st Earl of Essex, whose son led the rebellion which cast a shadow over Queen Elizabeth’s declining years. Sir Edward Devereux married Katherine Arden of Park Hall, the other important estate in the parish (the house has since gone), and when his mother Lady Hereford died in 1599 he set about replacing the old manor house at Castle Bromwich with the present brick-built Hall. It is essentially his house which we see today.

The new Hall was built on a square plan, with four gabled ranges arranged around a small internal courtyard – a plan found in several important country houses at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. The elevations are very plain, with walls of red brick and blue criss-cross patterning, straight-sided gables, large mullioned and transomed windows and tall chimneys rising up from within the courtyard. The entrance range faces south, with the Hall placed in the traditional fashion to one side, and entered through a porch and screens passage. It still retains some of its original plain wooden panelling, but the only other important room to retain any of its Elizabethan workmanship is the Gallery on the first floor, which has been subdivided. To the east of the house were detached outbuildings, one of which, an L-shaped structure containing the bakehouse, brewery and laundry, still survives.

The Start of the Hall

Sir Edward Devereux began to build the Hall in 1599, a splendid late Elizabethan style house. It is likely that he constructed a series of courts emanating from each face of the Hall: a Dovecote, a Brew House and offices to the east; the forecourt to the south; the Best and Kitchen Gardens to the west and Yew Walk to the Church on the north side.

I have found information to be conflicting on the original construction of the Hall.

The first Hall was a modest two storey building with the same floor plan as at present and may have looked similar to Sheldon Hall (Gressel Lane) which was also built by the Devereux family. It is also recorded as being originally a simple single-storey building that was later extended. This building programme coincided with a lot of similar architectural projects elsewhere in the country. It was built of brick then starting to become more popular and it contemporary to Aston Hall and the now vanished Park Hall in the Tame Valley.

Coming soon: Margaret continues this fascinating history with a record of the Devereux family and the start of the Bridgeman occupancy of the Hall.