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Coleshill Manor & Elizabethan gardens

Just down the road from me, we have been watching them dig for months now and wondered why HS2 needed to excavate so much land until our local paper told us what was happening.
There are huge plans for that land so I don't know how they will be affected, as well as HS2 they plan to build a huge pool, with artifical waves, to be a surfing centre, plus an electric skateboard track around it, hoping to attract 7 million people a year.
Personally I would rather have this wonderful site preserved and ditch the other plans.
Alberta
 
would anyone have any info on coleshill manor house please..ie was it ever used as a hospital and when was it demolished...thanks

lyn
 
Hi Lyn

I wonder if you are thinking of Coleshill Hall Hospital which was located at the
Hunting lodge near Gilson, and was accessed by a side road on the left of
the Birmingham Road a short way before you got to the A446 opposite
the old Coleshill Police Station.. A lot of people I knew thought the Hospital
was Coleshill Hall, but I believe the hall itself was just past the old farmhouse
on the Birmingham Road and some way back from the road.
The hospital was a psychiatric unit, and I think it closed in the 80s or early 90s,
but it could have been a bit earlier.

Kind regards
Dave
 
thanks dave its not me its a friend who i think is getting mixed up..thinking that it was coleshill manor house that became a hospital..i think you are correct in saying it was coleshill hall...thanks dave

lyn
 
The old Hall is further up the drive than where the excavation is taking place, it is a lovely building.When it closed as a hospital various businesses rent offices in there.
Next to the excavation is an old derilict farm, it has been like this for as long as I can remember, it is called Coleshill Hall farm and is older than the Manor campaigners have been trying to save it from HS2 development for years now.
Doesn't look like they will succeed the roof is now caving in.
The Manor was owned by the Digby family.
 
When I look at these old stately homes I doubt any of them would have been built if they'd had the nimbys and planning little Hitlers that we have today.
They would all be 'out of character' or 'Disturbing the wildlife' or 'Oppressive and overbearing.' 'Not within the planning zone' or any of the other excuses that are put forward to deny progress.
 
Alberta said:
The old Hall is further up the drive than where the excavation is taking place, it is a lovely building.When it closed as a hospital various businesses rent offices in there.
Next to the excavation is an old derilict farm, it has been like this for as long as I can remember, it is called Coleshill Hall farm and is older than the Manor campaigners have been trying to save it from HS2 development for years now.
Doesn't look like they will succeed the roof is now caving in.
The Manor was owned by the Digby family.
Click to expand...
It is not a farmhouse - it is the last surviving building of the original Coleshill Hall and was the Grand Coach House and stable block. When the Medieval Coleshill Hall was demolished (1799-1801) the coach house remained - it was no use as it was: so the coach arches (closest to the B'ham road) were knocked out and that part filled in to form windows and a new doorway. After that: it was let as a residential farmhouse.

The latest bunch of Hopeless Don Quixote's have saved it - we fought tooth and nail with HS2 management (with absolutely zero help or support from local OR borough councils) and secured an agreement from HS2 regional management to have it "archaeologically deconstructed" (their words): the individual building components put into shipping containers and then transported to a place of safe storage to await a restoration rebuild when sufficient funds have been raised to do so. The best thing of all is that HS2 has been forced to pay for the whole process out of their own funds.
 
Sorry Felix , I have lived close to it for about 52 years and did not know it before then ,it was habited when I first saw it with horses grazing in the field attached so to me it was a farm,but over the years I have watched it deteriate.
 
Alberta said:
Sorry Felix , I have lived close to it for about 52 years and did not know it before then ,it was habited when I first saw it with horses grazing in the field attached so to me it was a farm,but over the years I have watched it deteriate.
Click to expand...
The Lucas family ran a stud from there - his horses were beautiful creatures - almost all palomino's. If you get a really close photo of the frontage: it is still possible to spot part of one of the original arches. What is really fascinating: but is something that Wessex are sitting on - is the medieval stone gatehouse: which from the footings looks to have been a very substantial affair with two apsidal towers flanking a gated entrance.
 
"The best thing of all is that HS2 has been forced to pay for the whole process out of their own funds."

I think you mean the taxpayer's funds Felix.
 
The BBC’s ‘Digging for Britain’ Series 19 Episode 3 (at the start of the programme) shows the dig at the gatehouse of Coleshill Manor. It’s thought the Manor was involved in a skirmish, possibly the first skirmish of the Civil War in 1642. A parliamentarian force is thought to have attacked the very large gatehouse. There are shot holes in the walls. Interesting piece. A few screenshots from the programme. It’s on BBC iPlayer.

Viv.
 

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Must have been a very extravagant Manor (#9) with a stable block/coachhouse (later adapted) like that shown in #17. Anyone know where the coach house (#17) was in relation to the image in #9 ? Must have been radically adapted if it was originally part of that structure.

Although the Manor is shown as moated in 1600, did it have a gatehouse at this time ? (Not shown on the image in post #9). Or was it added in the 40 years before the Civil War ? Or in fact added just before the Civil War to protect its Royalist occupants? It certainly stresses the importance/threat being felt at the Manor if it saw a need for the massive gatehouse recently excavated.

A very interesting glimpse of Midlands history.

Viv.
 
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Thanks Pete. From that article it sounds to me that the Manor House in post #9 wasn’t the first, it was a rebuild by 1600 :

EBE6652C-22B6-4DA5-9DC6-EB0D72774E78.jpeg

Love Elizabethan gardens and their box hedging. At that time they they wouldn’t have suffered box caterpillar blight, a thing that’s taken hold here in the last few years. Viv
 
What an absolute gem this has turned out to be. The history goes way, way back. So much on one site. In some ways you can easily say ‘no thanks to HS2’ but I have to admit, it’s forcing some thorough and intense archaeological investigation. Some gains, some losses. Viv.
 
A walk away from my house and the amount of people working there is amazing, I was sad to see the old buildings demolished but what they have found is amazing.
I wonder if it will be left as part of the visitor attraction that is also being built on the site, including a pool with waves for surfing and a track for electric skate boards.
 
Alberta said:
A walk away from my house and the amount of people working there is amazing, I was sad to see the old buildings demolished but what they have found is amazing.
I wonder if it will be left as part of the visitor attraction that is also being built on the site, including a pool with waves for surfing and a track for electric skate boards.
Click to expand...
it will be interesting to see if this find is deemed important enough to retain it alberta...as we know the city is not given to keeping our history above ground...usually back filled never to be seen again.....a bit like giving a child a sweetie then taking it off them...reports..videos and photos are all very well and yes better than nothing but wouldnt it be great to be able to visit a site like this..somewhere to walk around and something to touch ..time will tell ... here is hoping but again i have my doubts

lyn
 
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North Warwickshire.


Theres a Coleshill Heritage Rescue Group who are seeking to get the best for the town once HS2 runs through it. It started as four local residents (Chris Phelan, Adam Richardson, Martin Bromage and Virginia Ford). They were working to save the manor house Farm. Hope it was saved. Maybe they’re involved in the Hall project ?

Viv.
 
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Hi,

I believe that the North Warwickshire Boundary in this immediate area is at the centre of the M6 Motorway.
But the other side of the boundary is Solihull MBC, - not Birmingham.

Kind regards
Dave
 
The item on Coleshill wasb the first on the Digging for Britain program tonight. Interesting to see the musket balls found (over 150) of various shapes
20230122_205947.jpg

one which shows (blue streak) where it scored against the barrel when being fired

20230122_210038.jpg

and one flattened where it hit the gatehouse

20230122_210556.jpg
 
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