upright=1.35, Maer Hall Maer Hall is a large Grade II listed 17th-century country house in Maer, Staffordshire, set in a park which is listed Grade II in Historic England's Register of Parks and Gardens The large stone-built country house and estate of Maer Hall dominate the

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

of Maer. Its location in the district of

Newcastle-under-Lyme Newcastle-under-Lyme is a market town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. It is adjacent to the city of Stoke-on-Trent. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the population ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, is attractively rural, but fairly close to the pottery manufacturing area around

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England. It has an estimated population of 259,965 as of 2022, making it the largest settlement in Staffordshire ...

which attracted its most famous owner

Josiah Wedgwood II Josiah Wedgwood II (3 April 1769 – 12 July 1843), the son of the English potter Josiah Wedgwood, continued his father's firm and was a Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Stoke-upon-Trent (UK Parliament con ...

. His nephew

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

often visited Maer, and married Josiah's daughter Emma. A manor house at Maer dates back to 1282, the owner then being William de Mere. The present stone house was built around 1680 on a slope above a small lake, or " mere", which gave the house its name. In the 18th century the landscape designer

Capability Brown Lancelot "Capability" Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783) was an English gardener and landscape architect, a notable figure in the history of the English landscape garden style. Unlike other architects ...

altered the lake in a scheme of pleasure grounds. The house could be approached from either the north entrance with its grade II listed lodge, or from the village of Maer to the south with its grade II* listed gatehouse. left, upright=1.25, Maer Hall Gatehouse It lay only 7 miles (11 km) from the

Etruria Etruria ( ) was a region of Central Italy delimited by the rivers Arno and Tiber, an area that covered what is now most of Tuscany, northern Lazio, and north-western Umbria. It was inhabited by the Etruscans, an ancient civilization that f ...

Works of the pottery manufacturer

, and in 1802 he bought the estate, borrowing money his brother-in-law

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...

to fund the purchase before the sale of his Dorset estates. He had the house prepared, with the park being laid out by the landscape designer John Webb, and in 1807 the family moved in. There was a pleasant freedom of speech in the family, with everyone speaking their mind without restraint. They frequently exchanged visits to and from their Darwin relatives only 20 miles (30 km) away, and the young

found it a welcome contrast to the stricter approach of his father. Charles gained much useful information from his relatives during the

inception of Darwin's theory The inception of Darwin's theory occurred during an intensively busy period which began when Charles Darwin returned from the survey voyage of the ''Beagle'', with his reputation as a fossil collector and geologist already established. He was gi ...

, and it was at Maer Hall that he first became interested in the effects of the burrowing of

earthworm An earthworm is a soil-dwelling terrestrial invertebrate that belongs to the phylum Annelida. The term is the common name for the largest members of the class (or subclass, depending on the author) Oligochaeta. In classical systems, they we ...

s, which were the subject of an early paper presented to the

Geological Society The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe, with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

as well as of his last book. He proposed to

Emma Wedgwood Emma Darwin (; 2 May 1808 – 2 October 1896) was an English woman who was the cousin marriage, wife and first cousin of Charles Darwin. They were married on 29 January 1839 and were the parents of ten children, seven of whom survived to adulth ...

at Maer Hall, and they were married at St Peter’s Church, which stands close by on the hillside overlooking the Hall. After the death of

in 1843 the property was sold to William Davenport of the Davenport Pottery, who added a huge clock tower and more stables, but these were knocked down in the 1960s, restoring the appearance of the original 17th-century Hall. For most of the 20th century it was the home of the Harrison family, owners of the Harrison Shipping Line.

References

External links

MAER, Charles Darwin (by John H. Wahlert)
{{coord, 52.942, N, 2.311, W, region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(SJ795385), display=title Country houses in Staffordshire Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme Grade II listed houses in Staffordshire Grade II listed parks and gardens in Staffordshire

See also

References

External links