Friday Photo: Pype Hayes Hall
Today’s Friday photo is Pype Hayes Hall, which is a grade II listed mansion house in Pype Hayes park in Erdington. I recently had a family day out to this beautiful park and came across this building which led me to do a bit of digging.
The building is Jacobian in origin and was built circa 1630 by the Sir Hervey Bagot for his son of the same name, who married Dorothy Arden (daughter of Sir Henry Arden). The hall passed down the generations of the Bagot family, who all left their marks. Most notably in the 1820’s Rev Walter Bagot completely remodeled the hall in the Georgian style with a stucco refacing. An additional family wing was also added from the 1850’s. The hall finally left the Bagot family when it was sold to James Rollison, a local manufacturer, who resided there until 1919. In that year the Hall was then sold to the City of Birmingham Corporation for use initially as a convalescent home, then during WW2 it became a 24 hour nursery that offered childcare for mothers working for the war effort. The building continued to be used for social services until Birmingham Council decided to sell the building in 2011. It has only recently been purchased by a local investor (Bromford Mill Properties) who plan to transform the house into 60 bedded hotel, spa and banqueting facility. Over the years due to the many alterations there is little evidence now of the building’s original timber framed structure, but it is rumoured that there is still a secret tunnel that links Pype Hayes Hall to Aston Hall. This was supposedly uncovered during renovation work in the 1950’s but covered up again after!
In regards to the building’s future, I hope that the new owners are sympathetic. It is a shame that they have already applied to demolish some of the listed out buildings even after agreeing on purchase that these would be renovated (this includes the WW2 air raid shelter!). The new owners claim they have to do this to make the main building financially viable. In a similar manner to Great Barr Hall, which I wrote about in a blog last year (view here), it is hard to know what will become of the hall, but it’ll be interesting to see how things pan out.
Just stumbled across this photo by accident. My mum was a nursery nurse here, and in 1952 rose to the post of Deputy Matron at age 22.
I lived in the Hall for 21 years and it has some mixed memories for me. The tunnel you speak of was in fact a well head in the cellar. It was excavated but they found only water (being a well not surprisingly) The cellar produced all sorts of stories about tunnels and stuff but no I don’t think there was a tunnel. But however the hall did have ghosts. I was only ever in the hall on my own once and slept all night in it at that time. The house mumbled a lot probably because it was so old. There was an old minstrels gallery which had the old library in it. That was creepy and even as a young adult I ran through it every time. There was an old fireplace with a carving (14th Century) of Christ before Herod. I remember looking at it once and it seemed like Herod’s head turned to look at me. The hall had some terrible times for example when Barbara was killed. Then there were some stories flying around. The accused was found not guilty. I could talk more on that subject but will not. I am not sure that it should be turned into a Hotel. I think it should be torn down and gardens built myself. I used to play in the air raid shelter it had some great finds in there that had been stored over the years. Hope this helps. If you would like more info please do not hesitate to contact me.
Thanks Peter for sharing your memories; fantastic to read about your experiences. Best wishes, Suzanne
I also lived in this beautiful building,there was a big old wooden door in the cellar and as kids we was told “that’s lady’s baggot tunnel and if you listen you can hear her horse and cart”. We used to tell each other scary ghost stories when the lights went out. We had to go to Saturday school at the old church across the road and Sunday school in the morning. I always remember the donkey we had. I once went back there to lay afew ghosts to rest,but wasn’t aloud in. Spooky place but was a privilege to live in such a beautiful place.