A Jacobean prodigy house in Birmingham

Construction on Aston Hall commenced in April 1618 by Sir Thomas Holte, using a design by John Thorpe. Built between 1618 and 1635, the house is a leading example of the Jacobean prodigy house. It sits in a large park, part of which became Villa Park, the home ground of the Aston Villa football club. The park itself is listed Grade II in Historic England's Register of Parks and Gardens.

In 1643, the house was severely damaged after an attack by Parliamentary troops. Some damage is still evident, including a hole in the staircase where a cannonball went through a window and an open door into the banister. The house remained in the Holte family until 1817, when it was sold and leased by James Watt Jr, son of industrial pioneer James Watt. In 1864, it became the first historic country house to pass into municipal ownership when it was purchased by Birmingham Corporation.

Washington Irving visited the house and wrote about it as Bracebridge Hall, taking the name from Abraham Bracebridge, the husband of the last member of the Holte family to live there. Irving's The Sketch Book stories described the harmonious warm-hearted English Christmas festivities he experienced while staying in Aston Hall. An Aston Hall custom for the servants of the house on Christmas Eve appeared in The Gentleman's Magazine in 1795, which said: "the servants have full liberty to drink, dance, sing, and go to bed when they please."

Following a major renovation completed in 2009, Aston Hall is now a community museum managed by the Birmingham Museums Trust. It features a series of period rooms with furniture, paintings, and textiles from the collections of the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. The mansion was named the UK's top haunted heritage site in 2019 by Spectrum Paranormal Investigations and the National Lottery.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons