Aston Hall

Title: Aston Hall

Built in: 1618-1635

Location: Trinity Road, Birmingham B6 6JD

Short intro: a seventeenth-century manor, with its jacobean era interior, recreated

Description: The hall was constructed from 1618-1635 by Sir Thomas Holte as his family residence, at the centre of a park and grounds once six times larger than it is today. The house was severely damaged during the civil war when it came under attack by Parliamentary troops in 1643. During the siege a cannonball damaged the interior bannister; the hole left by the cannonball can still be seen. The house remained with the Hotels until 1817 when it was sold and leased by James Watt Jr., son of industrial pioneer James Watt. After his death, the house fell into disrepair and was saved in 1858 by the Aston Hall and Park Company, till the Birmingham Corporation bought the house in 1864. It became the first historic country house to be publicly owned. Today the Hall is a community museum open to the public during the summer months: with a series of period rooms that use furniture, paintings and textiles from the Birmingham collections to recreate how the house may have looked when it was first constructed.