WEDDINGTON CASTLE - An Online History
Other Halls and Castles Around Nuneaton - Caldecote Hall
Click on thumbnail for larger image. Scroll down for more images and a history of this building. You can click here to access the Caldecote Hall microsite for more detailed information on this Hall.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
Caldecote, the neighbouring parish to Weddington, was a small farming estate based around the Hall, and still retains its rural character to this day. The Estate of Caldecote has had a rich, turbulent and sometimes illustrious past. It was registered in the Domesday Survey of 1086 as being in the ownership of the Bishop of Chester when it was valued at the princely sum of 60 shillings. There followed a long period of wrangling over its ownership and either through litigation or through the powers vested in some of the more tyrannical of our Monarchs, the Manor passed through the hands of a series of owners including King Henry VIII, Edward VI and Charles II.
The Hall itself became home to the Purefoy
family - an ancient family of Warwickshire landowners. Caldecote Hall is perhaps
best know for being besieged by Royalists during the English Civil War.
In 1642, Prince Rupert, a nephew of Charles I, had come with his troops from
Holland to support his Uncle. He assembled them at Tuttle Hill, Nuneaton, with
the intention of capturing Colonel William Purefoy, Member of Parliament for
Coventry, and a staunch and active Parliamentarian. On 28 August 1642, he
marched with his men against Caldecote Hall, but the Colonel was not in
residency, so he lived to tell the tale. Nevertheless, a siege of the Hall
ensued, and a number of Rupert’s soldiers were killed.
Little did he know that the defendants of this prize, against his well trained
soldiers, were just Mrs. Joane Purefoy, her maids, her son in law George Abbott,
and eight men. The maids repeatedly loaded the armoury of twelve muskets.
Rupert was thwarted by this sterling band, but succeeded in setting fire to the
building to drive them out. The house was burned to the ground, but Rupert
recognised the bravery of his opponents, and did them no harm. He even asked
George Abbott to join his ranks, an offer that he declined.
Colonel Purefoy’s convenient absence led him later to be one of the signatories
to the Death Warrant of Charles I. However, at the time of the Restoration of
the Monarchy, all Purefoy Estates were confiscated by the Crown due to his anti
Royalist actions.
The only part of the Hall to be reclaimed from the charred remains was the oak
hall way door, which remains to this day as the door to the porch of the
adjacent Parish Church of St. Theobald and St. Chad. This door, said to have
hinges from the 13th Century, was peppered with bullets, and today is a poignant
reminder of that day in 1642. The church contains an alabaster monument
dedicated to George Abbott for his valiant defence of the Hall.
The
book "Abbeys, Castles and Ancient Halls of England and Wales: Volume II"
by John Timms and Alexander Gunn (published by Frederick Warne & Co. 1872)
contains the following account of the attack:
"On the borders of Leicestershire, is Caldecote,
the church of which contains a monument of Mr Abbot, who defended Caldecote
Hall, who died there in 1648. On the 28th of August, 1642, this seat, the noble
mansion of the Purefoys, was attacked by Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice, at
the head of eighteen troops of horse, when Mr Abbot, assisted by only eight men
besides his mother and her maids, successfully defended Caldecote Hall against
the assailants; and it is not known that any of the family were hurt."
The Hall was extensively rebuilt in 1880. The 1881 Census shows a population of
one hundred and ten people, in twenty six houses. Fifty three males and fifty
seven females. Interestingly, only two people were born in the village, the rest
imported by the Lord of the Manor, no doubt from his other Estates.
Samuel Carpenter was the game keeper, William Sketchley the Foreman of the stone
quarry and George Friend, John Bailey and George Meek were carpenters. William
Matthews was a plumber and William Bott and John Bowler were gardeners Widower
James Pretty was the organist for the nearby Church, plus the customary half a
dozen wenches who were in domestic service.
A little-known footnote to Caldecote Hall's history: on December 23, 1834,
Joseph Hansom patented and invented the Hansom Cab whilst living at Caldecote
Hall with Dempster Heming's family.
Since this time, the Hall has functioned as a private residence of the Townsend
family, a retreat
for treatment of "Neurasthenia and other Nervous Ailments resulting from Mental
Strain, Drugs and Alcohol Addiction" :
you can read a contemporary article (in pdf format) about Caldecote
Hall's conversion into a "home for inebriates" in 1926 by clicking
here.*.
Later the Hall was a school and - following a severe fire in
1955 - private flats.
In 2005 a new develop took over the estate and has commenced a
programme of major refurbishment of the Hall, converting the private residences
and restoring a number of features destroyed by the fire.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Whilst Caldecote Hall has long been converted into flats, its impressive exterior has been sympathetically maintained by developers. However, the Hall and its surrounding 35 acre estate are private grounds, for residents' use only, and are not open to the public. The Church, which lies within the private grounds of the Hall can be accessed via an agreed pedestrian route.
It is however, possible to gain an insight into this magnificent building by visiting www.caldecotehall.co.uk. This site, whilst maintained by the Hall's current developers, contains some fascinating historical detail and images of the Hall both past and present.
A modified version of this site, within the Weddington Castle website, can be accessed by clicking
here.
Grateful acknowledgement to Tony Davis whose article 'Caldecote, A Shy Vilage
Under Attack' (2001) forms the basis of this
history.
* H. H. AYSCOUGH (1926) A NEW HOME FOR INEBRIATES: CALDECOTE HALL, NUNEATON. Published in "Addiction" Volume 23 Issue 3 Page 137-139, January 1926
PLEASE NOTE: you will need to have Adobe Acrobat software installed on your computer in order to download and read this file. If you do not have this you can download the software for free by clicking the image below (you must be connected to the Internet to access this site and download the software). When you have downloaded the software you can return to this page by clicking the 'back' button on your browser.
