A History of Castle Bromwich for young people
Park Hall
This Ordnance Survey map of 1952 shows the site of Park Hall opposite Park Hall School. In the middle of the moat in the Middle Ages was a large timber-framed house owned by the Arden family for
hundreds of years. The site has now been built on.
It was called Park Hall because in the 13th century it was a deer park, a park where deer were kept for hunting.
William Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden was related to the Arden family of Park Hall.
If you click the map, it will open a website on a new page showing Park Hall in 1921. Use the slider at the bottom of the map to fade the modern streets in and out to see where the old manor house stood.
In 1583 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Edward Arden was executed for plotting against the Queen. He was probably innocent.
His son, Robert then built a new Park Hall down by the River Tame. The site is shown on the map above as Park Hall Farm.
In the 17th century the hall was rebuilt as it appears in the 19th-century photograph. And by now the Arden family had left.
By the 20th century it was just a farmhouse which fell out of use and was demolished about 1970. The land around it is now part of Park Hall Nature Reserve looked after by the Birmingham & Black Country Wildlife Trust.
Weblink
To find out more about Park Hall Nature Reserve, click the logo of the Birmingham & Black Country Wildlife Trust.
'A History of Castle Bromwich for Young People' written by William Dargue 2016 for the Castle Bromwich Bellringers.
We’ve been ringing here for 500 years and are keen to involve local people in our ancient art. Contact us via our church website, if you want learn to ring or visit the tower or have one of us talk to your group about the history of Castle Bromwich, our church or bellringing. Material on this site may be reused only for non-commercial purposes providing appropriate attribution is given (Creative Commons Licence Attribution NonCommercial 4.0) - details on the Contact page.