Record Details
| MonUID: | MST856 |
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| HER Number: | 00856 |
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| Type of record: | Monument |
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| Name: | Site of Tixall Hall, Tixall Park |
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Summary
The site of Tixall Hall, which was once home to the Aston family and said to have been the centre of Roman Catholicism in the county in the 16th century. The original hall was built in 1555, being replaced by another hall in the later 18th century. The hall was used as the headquarters of the Staffordshire Yeomanry during the First World War before being demolished in 1926. Only the gatehouse and stables now remain, though hot and dry weather conditions in 2018 showed the layout of the demolished halls as cropmarks on aerial photography.
Monument Type(s):
Protected Status:
Full description
Tixall Hall was for long the home of the Astons, a family of enormous wealth. Sir Edward Aston, head of the house in the early part of Elizabeth's reign, is said to have had a rent roll of £10, 000 a year.
The hall is utterly gone and its Georgian recently shared the same fate.
On the demolition of Tixall Hall, much of the old stone from its predecessor was discovered and this was used in the construction of the new Church of St. John in Stafford. <1>
Tixall was, in the 16th century, headquarters of Roman Catholicism in the county. The original mansion was erected in 1555 by the Astons. In 1644 Parliamentary troops occupied the hall. The infamous Titus Oates plot (a supposed Catholic conspiracy to kill King Charles II) was largely connected with the neighbourhood, the informer Dugdale claiming to have heard treason spoken between Lord Stafford and Sir Walter Aston in the vicinity of the bowling green.
The new hall was begun in 1750. The chapel remained until 1855, the stone then being used for the Roman Catholic Chapel at Great Haywood. The old hall subsequently became the headquarters of the Staffordshire Yeomanry during the First World War and was demolished in 1926 with some stabling alone remaining. <2>
Except for a levelled area, now under pasture, no trace of Tixall Hall survives. The remaining stable range appears to date from the 18th century rebuilding. The 16th century gatehouse is still extant. <3>
The remains of the 1780 hall, which incorporated the east wing of the earlier, 1555, hall, are clearly visible as cropmarks on aerial photography from circa 2010 and 2018 (when weather conditions were particularly hot and dry).
The cropmarks also show the freestanding 19th century Catholic Chapel behind Tixall Gatehouse on the site of the 1555 hall. This was moved to Great Haywood where it serves as St John's Roman Catholic Church.
A sketch plan shows the relative position of the 16th and 18th century halls, the Roman Catholic Chapel to the west, with the extant gatehouse to the south and the stables to the north.
The hall and grounds were used to house the Staffordshire Yeomanry at the beginning of the First World War. (SB, 07-Nov-2018) <4> <5> <6>
Sources and further reading
| <1> | SST390 - Index: Ordnance Survey. See cards. Ordnance Survey Card Index. SJ 92 SE - 12 ('Staffordshire' by C. Masefield, 1930, pages 234-235 and page 263). |
| <2> | SST390 - Index: Ordnance Survey. See cards. Ordnance Survey Card Index. SJ 92 SE - 12 (T.N.S.F.C. Volume 80, 1945-1946, page 89 by J.S. Horne). |
| <3> | SST390 - Index: Ordnance Survey. See cards. Ordnance Survey Card Index. SJ 92 SE - 12 (V.J. Burton (Ordnance Survey Field Inspector), 24-Feb-1958). |
| <4> | SST954 - Written: Dr. Anne Andrews. 2018. Correspondence relating to Tixall Hall and Gatehouse, November 2018. |
| <5> | SST955 - Article in serial: Dr. Anne Andrews. 2018. 'Updated information on Tixall Cropmarks' - Letter in The Staffordshire Newsletter - Wednesday September 5th 2018. |
| <6> | SST956 - Aerial Photograph: Historic England. 2018. Aerial photograph showing the cropmark remains of Tixall Hall. Digital. |
Related records
| 20736 | Part of: Tixall Park (Monument) |
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