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Chillington Hall

Country houses in StaffordshireGardens by Capability BrownGrade I listed buildings in StaffordshireGrade I listed housesHistoric house museums in Staffordshire
History of StaffordshireJohn Soane buildingsStructures formerly on the Heritage at Risk registerUse British English from February 2023
Chillington Hall (2)
Chillington Hall (2)

Chillington Hall is a Georgian country house near Brewood, Staffordshire, England, four miles northwest of Wolverhampton. It is the residence of the Giffard family. The Grade I listed house was designed by Francis Smith in 1724 and John Soane in 1785. The park and lake were landscaped by Capability Brown. In the Domesday Book, Chillington (Cillintone) is entered under Warwickshire as forming part of the estates of William FitzCorbucion. His grandson Peter Corbesun of Studley granted Chillington to Peter Giffard, his wife's nephew, for a sum of 25 marks and a charger of metal. The present house is the third on the site. In the 12th century there was a stone castle on the site, a small corner of which can be seen in the cellars of the present house, and beside it the original house. This house was replaced in the 16th century by Sir John Giffard, who was High Sheriff of Staffordshire on five occasions. Peter Giffard began the third building by demolishing and replacing part of Sir John's Tudor house in 1724. This rebuilding replaced the existing south front of three storeys in red facing bricks with stone dressing. In about 1725, Peter Giffard planted the long avenue of oak trees which formed the original approach to the house, but he probably incorporated many existing trees. During the 1770s, Capability Brown designed the landscape park and lake to the south of the house for Thomas Giffard the elder. There are a number of Grade II and Grade II* listed structures on the estate. The Grade II* listed dovecote and stable block were on the Buildings at Risk Register but were removed in 2009 following repair work. Restoration work had commenced in 2008 under John Giffard, former chief constable of Staffordshire Police.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Chillington Hall (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Chillington Hall
Upper Avenue, South Staffordshire Brewood and Coven

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N 52.6585 ° E -2.2029 °
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Upper Avenue

Upper Avenue
WV8 1RE South Staffordshire, Brewood and Coven
England, United Kingdom
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Chillington Hall (2)
Chillington Hall (2)
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Speedwell Castle
Speedwell Castle

Speedwell Castle is a mid-18th-century house at the centre of Brewood, Staffordshire, between Wolverhampton and Stafford. Described by Pevsner as a "peach" and a "delectable folly", it stands beside the village market place, at the head of a T-junction on Bargate Street, facing onto Stafford Street. The house is an interesting combination of "Gothick" and Classical architecture: the symmetrical brick façade has two canted bays, each of three storeys, either side of a pillared entrance with ogee portico and octagonal-panelled door. There are five windows around each bay on each floor, and a single window on the two floors above the entrance, with decorative plasterwork arranged in tiers of round-headed arches with keystones and ogee arches rising to pinnacles surmounted by acorns. The glazing is arranged in a delicate tracery, originally of hexagons (although the glazing bars are not original on the ground and first floors). The façade is finished by a modillion cornice and parapet, concealing a hipped slate roof with brick chimney stacks. The interior includes one surviving decorative plaster ceiling and a Chinese Chippendale staircase with fretted balustrade. The house became a grade II listed building in 1953. The designer is unknown but some sources suggest Thomas Farnolls Pritchard, who worked nearby in Shropshire. The house has some similarities with Sandhurst House in Stourbridge, and Shenstone Hall near Lichfield. The design may have been inspired by the books published in the 1740s by Batty Langley, who attempted to improve Gothic forms by giving them classical proportions. Speedwell Castle was reputedly built by a local apothecary William Rock, using the winnings from betting on the Duke of Bolton's racehorse, Speedwell. (An alternate story is that the builder owned an unsuccessful racehorse, and said that he would build a castle to celebrate if it ever won). After a period as the home of the classics master at Brewood Grammar School in the second half of the 19th century, it became a reading room in the late 19th century. It was then used as shops and storage until the 1930s, when it was converted to residential flats.

South Staffordshire
South Staffordshire

South Staffordshire is a local government district in Staffordshire, England. The district lies to the north and west of the West Midlands county, bordering Shropshire to the west and Worcestershire to the south. It contains notable settlements such as Codsall, Cheslyn Hay, Great Wyrley, Penkridge, Brewood, Coven, Essington, Huntington, Weston-under-Lizard, Bilbrook, Wombourne, Himley, Perton and Featherstone. Codsall is the main administrative centre of South Staffordshire District. Many of the villages form both commuter and residential areas for the nearby towns of Cannock, Stafford and Telford, as well as the wider West Midlands County. The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, by the merger of Cannock Rural District (in the north) and Seisdon Rural District (in the south). Its council is based in Codsall, The district covers a similar geographic area to South Staffordshire parliamentary constituency, although the north of the district is covered by the Stafford constituency. Sir Patrick Cormack of the Conservative Party held the South Staffordshire seat, and its predecessor, Staffordshire South-West, between 1974 and 2010, when he retired and the seat was won by Gavin Williamson for the Conservative Party. Among the council's responsibilities is the provision of the 'South Staffordshire Link', a minibus service serving rural communities in the area. Providing journeys on different routes on set days, this service is open to anyone unable to access normal bus services. Potential customers have to book in advance.