Edgbaston Hall

The Middlemores had never abandoned the Catholic faith. The Blessed Humphrey after whom the school in Metchley Lane is named was a martyr in Elizabeth 1's time. In 1635 Richard Middlemore forfeited his lands as 'a papist and delinquent', but was allowed to rent them back. He sublet to Richard Porter, the Birmingham blade-miller, who had the Edgbaston mills working for Parliament like those of the town. Porter was with Grevis's troop when they fled from Rupert's dragoons, for he knew he could expect short shrift. Though damaged by Fox's men, the Old Hall survived until 1688, when the townsmen demolished it lest it become 'a home and a refuge for papists'. The RC Church in Masshouse Lane was burnt, and Catho-lics thereafter held service in an Edgbaston Farm : its successor on a site in Pritchatts Road is still called Masshouse Farm.

In 1718 Sir Richard Gough of Perry, who had bought the Middlemore estate, built a new Hall. This was the main block of the present building, a plain brick structure which appears in Beighton's View of 1730 and Westley's Prospect of '31. The former shows the church, which Sir Richard had restored in 1725, with large Home Farm buildings beside it. The Park had evidently been re-designed a few years before, because the formal avenues and plantations are newly-set : only the quick-growing poplars are of any height. A few forest giants had survived here and there, and there was a full-grown copse west of the Park. The fishponds were drained and in use as tree-nurseries. A feature just four years old was the tollgate at the top of Old Bromsgrove (Priory) Road, with the keeper's cottage beside it. Though gate and house are long gone, the second successor on or near the site retains the name.