Blyth Hall is a privately owned mansion house on the banks of the

River Blythe The River Blythe flows through the English Midlands from central Warwickshire, through the Borough of Solihull and on to Coleshill in north Warwickshire. It runs along the Meriden Gap in the Midlands Plateau, is fed by the River Cole and ...

situated near

Shustoke Shustoke is a village in the North Warwickshire district of the county of Warwickshire in England.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 549. It is situated 2.5 miles no ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

. It is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. The estate was purchased in 1625 by

Sir William Dugdale Sir William Dugdale (12 September 1605 – 10 February 1686) was an English antiquary and herald. As a scholar he was influential in the development of medieval history as an academic subject. Life Dugdale was born at Shustoke, near Colesh ...

, a prominent antiquarian, who shortly thereafter built a new house on the site. In 1690–1700, the house was substantially enlarged and improved with a twelve-bay brick façade with two storeys and additional upper

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a Roof pitch, pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the ...

s. In the 18th century, Jane Dugdale, sole heiress of Blyth, married Richard Geast of Handsworth. Their son, also Richard Geast, married Penelope Stratford, heiress of neighbouring Merivale Hall in 1767. He inherited Blyth from his maternal uncle John Dugdale and changed his name to Dugdale in 1799. Later Dugdales became the Dugdale baronets of Blyth and Merevale. In May 2024, William Dugdale, the 12th-generation owner, announced that he was opening the hall for events, conferences, and tours in order to fund its upkeep. The hall can accommodate up to 30 people in 13 bedrooms.

References

Warwickshire Museum Timetrail
* ''Burkes Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry ''(Bernard Burke)

External links

* * {{Authority control Country houses in Warwickshire Grade I listed buildings in Warwickshire Borough of North Warwickshire