Himley Hall
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Himley Hall is a country house situated between Kingswinford and Wombourne, near Dudley and Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, England.
In early days, Himley Hall was a moated manor house, standing beside the medieval church. For over four centuries it served as a secondary home to the Lords of Dudley and their knights. Its occupants included Dud Dudley, whose seventeenth-century experiments in smelting iron ore with coal were carried out nearby. In 1645, King Charles I encamped in the grounds on his way to defeat at the Battle of Naseby during the English Civil War.
In 1628, the Ward family inherited the title Lords of Dudley through the marriage of Humble Ward to the heiress to the Dudley estates, Frances Sutton. Humble Ward was the son of the jeweller and goldsmith to the court of King Charles I. Following damage to Dudley Castle during the Civil War, Himley Hall became the principal family home.
Today's hall dates from the 18th century when John Ward demolished the medieval manor to make way for a great Palladian mansion. The village of Himley village was relocated at this time, and its church rebuilt on its present site in 1764. In 1774 John Ward died and was succeeded by his son John. He brought in Lancelot 'Capability' Brown to re-design the parkland.
The 180 acres (728,000 m²) of grounds were designed by Capability Brown to include a great lake, fed by a series of waterfalls from a higher chain of smaller pools.
The family left Himley in the 1830s, because it was took close to the Black Country. They instead lived in great grandure on their mineral wealth at Witley Court at Great Witley in Worcestershire.
In 1934 the Duke and Duchess of Kent honeymooned at Himley. The Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) spent his last weekend there before his abdication.
After World War II, the property was sold to the National Coal Board for £45,000. During its conversion for this new purpose, a fire broke out in, and gutted, the South wing. This part of the house was rebuilt but, unfortunately, not according to its former appearance. The decline in the coal mining industry in the area led to the Hall being once more put on the market. In 1966 it was purchased jointly by Dudley and Wolverhampton County Borough Councils. The park was opened as a public leisure area. In 1988 Dudley bought Wolverhampton's share, gaining outright ownership.
