Biddulph Old Hall

About this place

Biddulph Old Hall started life as a hunting lodge built in 1480, extended in 1530 and remodelled into a symmetrical stone Elizabethan mansion by 1580.

It stands near the town of Biddulph in Staffordshire.

Parliamentary forces besieged the hall in February 1644 during the Civil War.

Much of it was left in ruins, which still stand today framed by a white briar rose garden.

Historic Houses lists the property, though entry is not free to its members.

History

The Biddulph family retained ownership beyond the Civil War siege, continuing until the male line ran out around 1835, when the house passed to the Stonor family. The surviving range was rebuilt and extended in 1660, and a Roman Catholic chapel was added in 1840. The twentieth century brought very different occupants. Pre-Raphaelite artist Robert Bateman lived here from 1871 to 1922. In the 1960s the hall served as a Buddhist retreat and teaching centre, and the present owners began a restoration in 2004.

Architecture

The house grew in stages from a fifteenth-century hunting lodge into a symmetrical Elizabethan mansion. The surviving ruins still show a priest hole and the remains of the original kitchen.

Worth knowing

Pre-Raphaelite artist Robert Bateman lived at Biddulph Old Hall for over fifty years. The hall later became a Buddhist retreat and teaching centre in the 1960s.

Gardens & grounds

The grounds keep traces of an Elizabethan parterre and a yew avenue. A box parterre survives too, alongside a valley garden linked by a restored path to the nearby Biddulph Grange Gardens.