Aston Hall on Site

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Aston Hall was built by Sir Thomas Holte (1571-1645) in the seventeenth century. Construction on the hall began in 1618 and after eighteen years of construction that hall was completed in 1635. It is situated in a small town called Aston in Birmingham. Back when the hall was first built, Aston was known as a small village near the city. It was much more important than Birmingham was. Across the hall was Parish church, which still lies there and today, seven miles away is the Birmingham airport. Also surrounding the hall was Aston Park, which has decreased in size from how it was. The park used to be eight times larger in size that it is today and the River Tames was also near the hall when it was first built.

The Jacobean mansion which is now being used as a museum and under the ownership of the Birmingham City Council was built by Sir Thomas Holte for him and his family. Holte wanted to show off the status and wealth he had and he felt that building the grand hall was the way to do it. He wanted the hall to illustrate his power after he received his baronet from the King and he also wanted the hall to stay within his family for the next two hundred years to continue his family’s dynasty. After he died, Holte was forced to pass the hall over to Robert, who the son of his son, Edward. Shortly after his death, Robert lost the hall to James Watt junior and later on, the council got the full ownership of the hall and they still do.

To build his magnificent hall, Holte got John Thorpe to design and construct it. John Thorpe was seen as a fashionable architect in those days and only the people with wealth would be able to use him and this too, showed off Sir Thomas’s wealth. Sir Thomas met John when he was in London during his us...

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...hoolsliaison.org.uk/2004/aston/index.htm

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aston_Hall

• http://www.birminghamuk.com/astonhall.htm

Books:

• Grand Old Mansion: Holtes and Their Successors at Aston Hall, 1618-1864 by Oliver Fairclough (Paperback - April 1984)

• Aston Hall: A property of the City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (Unknown Binding - 1969)

• Aston Hall: a General Guide by Oliver Fairclough (Paperback - 1981)

• Politics, Society and Civil War in Warwickshire, 1620-1660 (Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History) - Paperback (16 May 2002) by Ann Hughes and Anthony Fletcher;John Guy;John Morrill

• Aston Hall a General Guide by Anon (Paperback - 1987)

• Aston Hall by Museum and Art Gallery (Birmingham) (Paperback - 3 Jan 1987)

• The Jacobean Country House: From the Archives of "Country Life" by Nicholas Cooper (Hardcover - 25 Oct 2006)

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