Broughton Hall, Staffordshire

Broughton Hall near Eccleshall, Staffordshire is a privately owned 16th century Elizabethan style manor house. It is a Grade I listed building.

The manor of Broughton was owned by the eponymous Broughton family from the 13th century. The present house was built in the mid 16th century in the vernacular black and white timbered style of the Elizabethan period. Later the house was stuccoed.

The estate was sold in 1914 to John Hall, a Midlands industrialist, who extended the property and carried out significant restoration works including the removal of the stucco to reveal the original timbers.

During the 1940s the house served as a school and in 1952 it was donated by the Halls to the nuns of the Franciscan order of St Joseph. It was abandoned in the 1990s until it was returned to private ownership in 2003. The present owner John Caudwell continues renovation and restoration work.

The house is reputedly both haunted (by a drummer boy) and cursed, the curse being that no elder son will live to inherit it.

See also

References

Staffordshire Past Track