Aerial view of the former site of Nuneaton Hall. 2010

In the 17th century, John Stratford of the Stratford family - one of England’s largest landowners and richest families - acquired part of the manor of Nuneaton.

One of the properties held by the Stratfords was a remnant of the old Abbey in Nuneaton whose lands at that time extended down to the Market Place in Nuneaton. A few yards to the north of the Market Place was another substantial mansion, generally known as Nuneaton Hall. John Stratford’s mother (Abigail Stratford nee Pargiter) occupied this. It was a 'dower house' for the family (a dower house is generally a house occupied by a widow of a former owner), and had 10 hearths in the 1660s.

It is not known when it fell out of use and became unoccupied, but by 1800 Nuneaton Hall was itself derelict and was demolished around that year. Stratford Street was built about 1850 on a piece of ground called Hall Gardens, which was part of the extensive grounds of the old mansion. This area might have been the old Habbitt or Abbot’s house of the Abbey itself.

THE HABIT (aka Habbitt), sometimes styled a manor, was a mansion situated in the outer court of Nuneaton Priory, with lands attached, and appears to have been the lodging of the prior. In 1541 'le Habyte' was leased by the Crown to Ralph Sadler, but by 1563 it was held, as 'the manor of Thabbite', with Nuneaton Manor. It continued, however, as late as 1786 to be specifically mentioned in historical documents

John Stratford also bought Horestone Grange in 1648. It became his principal seat, although he also owned the Brett’s Hall and Ansley Hall estates which he merged into one, and then Merevale where his descendents through a female marriage remain today – the Dugdale family.

Thanks to Peter Lee for supplying historic detail about this Hall