8 bed Detached

Van Weenens Estate Agents

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· Joined: Feb 20, 2011

£1,000,000

8 bed Detached

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8 bed Detached in Great Barr WMD is a House

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Price:

£1,000,000 Get Prequalified Today

Contact:

01234 714003

BR/BA:

8 BR, 8 BA

Location:

Great Barr, W Mids

Description:

Arguably the most important Grade II * Listed Georgian Country House, in the ancient county of Stafford. This substantial property is set in a truly unique location, with spectacular views across its own two lakes, and occupies approximately One hundred and fifty acres of historic Grade II parkland. A romantic ruin now in need of complete restoration, nestled in isolation in a secluded valley, offering complete privacy, yet with superb road links to Birmingham City centre, some five miles away, the M6 Motorway/ A34, and Birmingham International Airport. The Hall offers scope to be increased or reduced in size, and subject to consent, lends itself readily as a Boutique Hotel, Nursing Home or Company Headquarters. There may also be further scope for a bespoke residential development of one or two properties in their own prescribed lakeside position. There is a wealth of historic landscaped features to include 18th Cent Carriage Drives along both sides of the lakes, and the Estate is believed to have been embellished by Humphry Repton, John Nash, George Gilbert Scott and William Shenstone. We are favoured with instructions by way of special dispensation from the trustees, to find a suitable custodian to safe guard this magnificent estate.
Offers in the region of 1,000,000

History
The building was initially known as Nether House and a hearth tax return of 1666 records Richard Scott as living there with five hearths in the house. It may have been a large farm house according to the evidence of inventories prepared in 1709 and 1715 with a barn and cockloft, buttery and dairy. By 1760 it was described as a 'handsome and commodious dwelling house' with stables a coach house and a walled garden. According to Stebbing Shaw in his 'History and Antiquities of Staffordshire' of 1798, 'The present possessor [Joseph Scott], about the year 1767, began to exercise his well known taste and ingenuity upon the old fabric, giving it the pleasing monastic appearance it now exhibits - and has since much improved it by the addition of a spacious Dining room at the east end, and other rooms and conveniences'. Shaw's book shows a watercolour depiction of the house with a symmetrical entrance front of 11 bays, having a central doorway, turrets to the corners and battlemented parapet. This is assured to be the present west front and the flank, or south front, had three bays. These alterations appear to have left the Scotts in financial straights and they went abroad from 1785 and let the estate to Samuel Galton junior, the Birmingham Quaker, banker and gun manufacturer. In this time the house was used as one of the venues for meeting of the Lunar Society, a group of entrepreneurs and intellectuals from the area around Birmingham, many of whom were Fellows of the Royal Society and who included, Matthew Boulton, James Watt, Erasmus Darwin and Josiah Wedgwood. The Scotts returned to Great Barr in 1797 and more alterations to the house followed. The reason may have been given by Galton's daughter, Mary Anne, who published an autobiography in 1858 under her married name of Schimmelpennink. She lived at the Hall between 1786 and 1797, and wrote that 'There were four or five different halls, and as many different staircases. It was more like an assemblage of several houses under the same roof, than the unity of one dwelling'. Joseph Scott, who was responsible for both stages of alteration, was made a baronet in the late C18 and became MP for Worcester. This second campaign of alterations appear to have been intended to address the problems which Miss Schimmelpennink outlined, as well as to celebrate Sir Joseph's new status. The central, top-lit, staircase with landings at several different levels seem to have been devised to solve the problems which resulted from the previous piecemeal development of the house. At the same time the ground-floor plan was altered to provide an inter-connected group of reception rooms and the exterior was changed to create a more dynamic composition than the existing, slightly block-like, outline which would have looked old-fashioned by the tail end of the C18. The alterations include the three bays which project at the centre of both floors, and which replace the former five bays which were more closely spaced. At the same time the ground floor projections at the either side of the centre were added, with their canted bay windows. What remained of the former faade appears to have been the three first floor windows at either side which also incorporated corner turrets (since demolished) that extended upwards to an attic floor. A depiction of the earlier form of the house in Stebbing Shaw's `History and Antiquities of Staffordshire' shows these turrets and would also seem to indicate that the earlier Gothic treatment may have had ogee heads to the windows. Mary Anne Schimmelpennink wrote of the house having being built in the `Ogee Gothic style'; so it may well be that the early - C19 additions respected the existing style of c. 1767. Unifying the front and adding interest across it are a series of octagonal buttresses which terminate in flat or battlemented caps which were also added at this time.
The revised appearance of the house has distinct architectural quality and the intricate adjustments to the plan are adroitly handled and have prompted speculation as to the authorship. Humphry Repton had been active in re-opening the layout of the park from 1797 and his partner at the time was John Nash made 'alterations to the house and a gothic entrance to the churchyard' c.1800. He cited Stebbing Shaw, whose history contains an illustration of the churchyard gate (which is broadly similar to that by Nash at Clytha Court, Monmouthshire). Between 1830 and 1848 major works included the addition of a clock tower, together with the extension of the south face of the hall and the removal of the entrance to the north elevation from its previous place on the west side. A chapel was added to the south west corner of the building c. 1863 and is thought to have been to the designs of Sir George Gilbert Scott who is also believed to have added other estate buildings including lodges and a boat house. The chapel was never consecrated and was turned into a billiard room. Following the death of lady Bateman-Scott in 1909 the hall was bought by the West Bromwich Poor Law Guardians and from 1918 it served as a hospital for the mentally ill. In 1925 a two-storey extension was added to the north elevation. In 1955 the clock tower, stables and part of the east wing were demolished. Alterations in the 1960s included the insertion of load-bearing steel beams and the removal of the Oriel windows on the north front and their replacement with the current metal casements. The house ceased to be a hospital in 1978 and was in a state of some disrepair when it was last assessed at Grade II* in 2010.

Our clients are a Building Preservation Trust, who wish to safe guard this magnificent property, by finding a suitable custodian to finish what they have already started.

There is also the possibility of purchasing a further 100 acres of Listed Grade II Parkland, by separate negotiation.
All enquiries should be addressed to Haydn van Weenen, who is the Charities retained agent. Haydn can be contacted on 01234 714003, or by email, (click to respond).

Views of The Lakes.

CSPADDER000

Property Type:

Single-Family Houses

For sale by:

Agent/Broker

Phone:

01234 714003

Posted:

February 19 2011 on Facebook

Contact:

01234 714003