L
LANGLEY
The de Beresford family of Wishaw were granted 50 acres of land at Langley by Henry the Third and in 1298 William de Beresford built a substantial moated house there which came to be known as Langley Hall.
The family held the estate until the death of Baldwin de Beresford in 1422 when it passed by the female line through Hoare and eventually to the Pudseys by virtue of the marriage of Edith Hoare to Rowland Pudsey in 1549.
The Pudseys became a prominent local family. Robert born 1520 married a relative of Bishop Vesey and was Warden of the town in 1543 and 1554, as was his son George in 1582 and 1604 and his grandson George in 1636 and 1650. They were strongly for the Parliament, in common with most in Sutton Coldfield, during the Civil War .
In 1604 George Pudsey was granted land which he dammed to create a pool ( Langley Pool) to power a water corn mill and in 1698 he was permitted to create a second pool at Lindridge to increase the supply of water and hence power to the mill. The annual rent payable to the Warden and Society for this pool was three shillings, six bottles of wine and a ‘dish of fish’.
In 1671 the Langley Hall estate was valued at £120 a year, the joint highest valued property in the parish.
Henry Pudsey died in 1686 without a male heir. His widow later married William Wilson a builder and architect and the estate fell to her two daughters. Elizabeth Pudsey married Lord Ffolliot and they commissioned Wilson to design and build a great mansion at Four Oaks. Ann Pudsey married William Jesson and they settled at Langley.
The Jessons held the estate for three generations although latterly it was let out on lease to Andrew Hackett of Moxhull. After the death in 1786 of Williams grandson without issue the Holte/Bracebridge heirs sold the estate to Sir Robert Peel of Drayton Hall in 1817.
The mill was sold in 1820 and the old Hall was demolished in 1822 . The moat remains and the stable block dating from 1685 still stands although it now serves as part of a development of residential apartments.
SEE PUDSEY
SEE JESSON
SEE HACKETT
LAWLEY
The Lawleys owned the Manor of Much Wenlock, Shropshire from 1471, and in 1639 acquired Much Wenlock Priory.
Thomas Lawley of Spoonhill was created a baronet in 1641 and his son Sir Francis 2nd Bart followed family tradition when in about 1660 he bought the estate of the dissolved priory of Canwell, Staffs. The family lived in houses they built on the estate until the 1820s.
Sir Robert Lawley 4th Bart was Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1743 and his son , also Sir Robert was Warden of Sutton Coldfield in 1775 and 1776. This latter Sir Robert married into the Thompson family of Escrick, Yorkshire in 1764 and rebuilt Canwell Hall to create a house worthy of his new connections.
Robert Lawley is mentioned in a 1772 letter from Rev R B Riland , Rector ,to his bishop as being one of the persons of note in Sutton Coldfield
His elder son Sir Robert ( Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1797) was created Baron Wenlock in 1831 but died the following year without issue and the Barony expired. His brother Sir Francis Lawley MP lived with his sister, who had married a Willoughby,at Middleton Hall, but he also died without issue in 1851.
The title Baron Wenlock was recreated in 1839 for Sir Paul Beilby Lawley 8th Bart
who on inheriting the Escrick estate changed his name to Lawley- Thompson.
The Escrick estate was later sold in 20th century to meet death duties and the Barony expired with the death of the 6th Lord Wenlock in 1932.
SEE CANWELL
LITTLE ASTON
Little Aston on the north west border of Sutton Coldfield is administratively a part of Staffordshire. It is first mentioned in record books in the 13th century but little is known prior to about 1730 when Richard Scott of Great Barr built Little Aston Hall in Georgian style with a park and lake.
The house and estate was acquired by William Tennant in 1770 and restyled for him by architect James Wyatt in the early 19th century but the family fortunes were not maintained and the Hall changed hands in 1830 and again in 1844 when it was bought by Edward Jervis Jervis 2nd Viscount St Vincent. It was enlarged and improved at a reputed cost of £35000 in 1857 by Edward Swynfen Parker Jervis, soldier son of the 2nd Viscount , and great great nephew of Admiral John Jervis, later Earl of St Vincent, the naval hero of the 1797 Battle of Cape St Vincent.
From the first decade of the 20th century the Hall had a number of owners and in 1925 the estate of over 1500 acres was broken up when the Hall was sold to Harry Scribbans with only 118 acres and the remaining land was sold by auction piecemeal.
From the early 20th century the Hall had a number of owners and in 1925 the estate of over 1500 acres was broken up when the Hall was sold to Harry Scribbans with only 118 acres and the remaining land was sold by auction piecemeal.
Unoccupied from 1950 the house became the Midlands Regional Headquarters of Esso in 1954. From 1968 it served as a Residential Centre for GKN.
In 1984 the site was redeveloped, the Hall was converted into seven superior residential apartments, seven new blocks each of six apartments were built in the grounds overlooking the lake and a new Residential Care Home and a BUPA hospital followed.
Little Aston was for a long time a part of the parish of Shenstone, until St Peters Church was built at the expense of, and on land donated by, Edward Swynfen Parker Jervis. The new church, designed by architect G E Street, was consecrated in 1874
LONGMORE
In 1735 Joseph Gibbons ( Warden in 1742 and 1743) and John Riland ( Warden 1728) were granted a lease of land at Longmore by the Corporation at a rent of one shilling a year, and by damming the Longmore brook created a pool for the purpose of powering a water mill.
In 1760 the then tenant, the Miller Richard Reynolds converted the mill from corn to button polishing.
The 1881 census shows the mill in the possession of Willliam Geo Bond, miller and the mill is known to have been working in 1889.
The derelict mill was demolished in 1938 and no trace remains