LAURENCE INCE AT THE JOHN PALMER HALL
15 Jun 2015
This important medieval site is little known yet has a fascinating history. At the beginning of the reign of Henry II Ketelberne de Longdon gave land and helped found a priory for Benedictine nuns dedicated to St Margaret. It was a small foundation and at first it was named Estwell or Eltwell but later received the name of Henwood because of the tall oaks growing there. In 1228 Pope Gregory IX granted the nuns confirmation of their possessions including a virgate of land in Radbourne. The Abbot and Convent of Westminster Abbey bestowed on Henwood Priory in 1305 fifteen acres of waste in Longdon. The priory later received more gifts but its progress was curtailed in 1349 when the Black Death made its appearance in the area. In that year Henwood Priory had no prioress and only three nuns remained. Nine names are known of the prioresses of this foundation. These names suggest that they are mainly the younger daughters of Solihull land-owning families. The last prioress was Alice Hugford and in 1535 the annual value of the priory was just over £21. In 1536 at Henwood there was a prioress, a retired prioress and six nuns. In that year Henry VIII dissolved the smaller religious houses including Henwood. Alice Hugford, the prioress, was given an annual pension of £3 6s 8d in 1536 and she was still living in 1553. In 1540 the site and possessions of Henwood Priory were sold to John Hugford by the Crown for the sum of £207 5s.
It is obvious that the new owner of Henwood Priory was related to the last prioress. The Hugfords were well connected Warwickshire gentry. Sir John Hugford was steward to Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick. John Hugford, the son of the John Hugford who bought the priory was descended from this family through William Hugford of Princethorpe. He pulled down Henwood Priory church and transformed the buildings into a large rambling half-timbered hall. Hugford was returned to Parliament in 1593. He made his will in 1603, asking to be buried in the aisle of Solihull Church near his father and first wife. He wished to be buried under a gravestone of brass inscribed with the family’s arms and dates of death. As part of his will the poorest householders in Solihull were to receive a total of 40s. Henwood Hall then became owned by William Spooner who had married into the Hugford family.
In the 1820s Henwood Hall was demolished and little can be seen of the remains of the house or priory. A replacement house called Henwood Hall Farm was built at that time. Several images were shown of prints and watercolours of the building produced just before Henwood Hall was demolished. The Henwood site, which still boasts a converted mill, is an important part of Solihull’s heritage. It is the only site in the Solihull area that I know of that features in literature. A short story called Henwood Hall was published in the early 1820s in a journal named The Literary Lounger. The site is also famous as being one of the most haunted areas in Warwickshire and the West Midlands. It is said that at dusk near the River Blythe, you can be see a procession of spectral nuns, obviously the group that died at the time of the Black Death. When Henwood Hall was demolished the interior oak panelling was sold off. Some of the panelling ended up in Olton Hall and was later sold again in the 1920s. The panelling was bought by William Randolph Hearst, the American newspaper magnate. He was a great collector of historic architectural items. Hearst’s life was the basis of Orson Welles’s film Citizen Kane. The panelling was not used and was later sold off and spent much time stored in a cavern in America. The Henwood panels have now been reused to line a lawyer’s office in Kansas City.