Blakesley Hall Museum

Title: Blakesley Hall Museum

Built in: 1590

Location: Blakesley Road, Birmingham, B25 8RN

Short intro: A beautiful Tudor house and gardens, close to the centre of Birmingham.

Description: Blakesley Hall was built by Richard Smallbroke, a member of a leading Birmingham merchant family. The Hall is among the oldest buildings in Birmingham and provides a typical example of Tudor architecture: darkened timber and wattle-and-daub. Richard Smallbroke’s family would have farmed at the hall and in other buildings on their estate that no longer survive. After 1685 the house became a tenant farm owned by the Griswolde family. The last family to occupy the Hall were the Merrys in 1899, who were local paint manufacturers. The Hall became a museum in 1935 and is today a secluded haven from the suburban areas of Birmingham it exists in. The house has been furnished with furniture and objects from the seventeenth century and shows how a wealthy late Tudor family would have lived. Visitors can also experience the traditional herb garden and orchard, and the wildlife that inhabits them.