Aston Hall is a large and imposing Jacobean mansion.
The house was built by Sir Thomas Holte between 1618 and 1635 to plans by the well-known surveyor, John Thorpe.
Sir Thomas choose a commanding hilltop position, overlooking Birmingham, which was then a small but flourishing market and manufacturing town. In 1817 the Holte estates were broken up and sold.
Aston Hall was leased by the eldest son of the inventor, James Watt, whose Soho foundry was located nearby.
He died in 1848 and Aston Hall was later acquired by the Corporation of Birmingham.
Recently Birmingham City Council has carried out a sympathetic refurbishment of the interior.The impressive red-brick house was built to a 'half H' plan, with a hall range and two projecting wings.
On either side of the entrance courtyard are two lodges.
These are linked to the house by low walls which originally continued across the front of the courtyard. The fairytale skyline is embellished with ogee-capped towers, curved gables and tall chimneys.
On the ground floor of the south front is an Italian-inspired round-arched loggia.
During the Civil War Aston Hall was a Royalist stronghold and the damage sustained at this time resulted in the main entrance being moved to a central position.
Although there were more minor alterations to the interior and exterior during the 18th century the Jacobean character of the house survived.
The interior of Aston Hall has period rooms from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries and as the house is uninhabited most of these rooms are open to the public.
Much of the furniture belonging to the Holte and Watt families was dispersed over the years but Birmingham City Council has re-acquired many of the Holte portraits.
The Council has also painstakingly refurnished the rooms with pieces from the city's art galleries and museums.
The main rooms are located in the south and west ranges.
These ornately decorated rooms have elaborate chimneypieces and extravagent woodwork. The plaster ceilings with strapwork, Italian grotteschi and arcane emblems are particularly fine.
The Hall, which has seen much remodelling, now contains some early-17th century wooden shell-backed chairs and the paintings include a idealised portrait of Sir Thomas Holte, dating from the 18th century.
The Parlour, reached through a stone archway, is hung with a tapestry woven at the Sheldon works in south Warwickshire in 1590.
Signs of the damage suffered in the Civil War can be seen on the ornately carved staircase which leads up to the south-facing Dining Room and the Gallery.
The Dining Room is tall and spacious and contains an intricate plaster frieze depicting the Nine Worthies.
The Gallery measures 136 feet and takes up the whole of the west or garden front. The room is lined with the busts of notable Englishmen, brought to the house by James Watt, and the walls are hung with early-17th century tapestries based on the Raphael Cartoons.
The rooms on the first floor of the north side of the house were remodelled in the 18th century and early-19th century and are now furnished with pieces from this period.
The second floor rooms were used as the servant's bedrooms. One of these rooms has been furnished as a Victorian housekeeper's room and a garret is now contains Civil War armour.
A back staircase leads from here to the service quarters where a large kitchen is equiped with the appropriate utensils and cooking equipment.
The ground floor rooms on the garden front were remodelled as living rooms in the 18th and 19th centuries. These now contain furniture by the early-19th century cabinet-makers George Bullock and his pupil Richard Bridgens and the walls are hung with contemporary paintings.
When it was built in the early-17th century Aston Hall had a splendid view over the surrounding countryside.
In the 19th century the town of Birmingham's immense growth swallowed up the surrounding farm land.
Today the view from Aston Hall includes 'Spaghetti Junction' and Aston Villa football ground.
Closed until summer 2009
Tel: 0121 327 0062 Aston Hall Website
