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Penns Hall is a building on Penns Lane,
Walmley Walmley is a suburban village situated in the civil parish of Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands. It lies within the City of Birmingham on its northeastern outer fringe, where it forms part of the Sutton Walmley and Minworth electoral ward. It is ...
, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, England, operated as a hotel and country club by Ramada International. The complex is now closed to the public due to the housing of asylum seekers. It is a Grade B locally
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 ...
, and is licensed as a venue for civil marriages and civil partnerships.
Plants Brook Plants Brook (originally Ebrook, Ebrooke''The Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield - A Commemorative History'', Douglas V. Jones, 1994, Westwood Press () or East Brook
, a tributary of the River Tame, flows through its grounds. A long pool formed by the damming of Plants Brook named Penns Lake is also part of the hotel grounds. This is today used as a carp fishing lake operated by Fosters Fisheries.


History

In 1618, John Penn was operating two
water mill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production ...
s for corn milling and for blade sharpening in Sutton Coldfield. The Websters, a
Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
family, operated a blade mill at
Perry Barr Perry Barr is a suburban area in north Birmingham, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is also the name of a Government of Birmingham, England#Council constituencies, council constituency, managed by its own ...
,
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
and in about 1750, Joseph Webster acquired the additional lease of the Penns Mills which property in 1776 comprised a house and two dwellings adjoining a wire mill and a fulling mill, called Penns Mills. He and his son Joseph Webster developed a wire drawing business and additional premises were taken on at Plants Mill and Hints Forge. Joseph Webster further expanded operations and in 1812 built cottages for the workers adjacent to the mills. This Joseph was warden of Sutton Coldfield in 1810. By 1815, when Joseph Webster was born, Penns Hall had become a substantial mansion; on census day in 1851 he was employing 105 men and 43 boys at the mills. He was also farming . His brother
Baron Dickinson Webster Baron Dickinson Webster (1818–1860), son of Joseph Webster of Penns Hall, Sutton Coldfield (then in Warwickshire), England, was a Justice of the Peace, a freemason, a member of the Aston Union and of the Turnpike Trust and was Warden of the t ...
, born 1818, was a justice of the peace, a
freemason Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...
, a member of the Aston Union and of the
turnpike trust Turnpike trusts were bodies set up by individual Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom, Acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road toll road, tolls for maintaining the principal roads in Kingdom of Great Britain, Britain from the 17th ...
and was warden of the town in 1844 and in 1855–1858. A man of some prominence, he was much involved in the negotiations with railway companies regarding their plans for routes to and through Sutton Coldfield. His business interests included the manufacture of
wire file:Sample cross-section of high tension power (pylon) line.jpg, Overhead power cabling. The conductor consists of seven strands of steel (centre, high tensile strength), surrounded by four outer layers of aluminium (high conductivity). Sample d ...
, and in 1998 a
blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...
was erected at the hall by the Sutton Coldfield Civic Society, honouring his involvement in the first
transatlantic telegraph cable Transatlantic telegraph cables were undersea cables running under the Atlantic Ocean for telegraph communications. Telegraphy is a largely obsolete form of communication, and the cables have long since been decommissioned, but telephone and dat ...
. In 1855, the business of Websters was merged with that of Horsfall at
Hay Mills Hay Mills is an area of east Birmingham, England straddling the A45 road, A45 Coventry Road about south east of the city centre. North of the Coventry Road is mainly residential whereas the south is mixed residential and commercial. The area wa ...
,
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
and, in 1859, the whole business was transferred to Hay Mills and the Penns Mills were closed down, with serious financial consequences for many workers and the economy of the Walmley area of Sutton Coldfield. Webster died in 1860 and in 1865, Penns Hall was bought by James Horsfall, whose son Henry was resident there in 1891. In 1947, the property was sold to
Ansells Ansells Brewery was a regional brewery founded in Aston, Birmingham, England in 1858. It merged with Tetley Walker and Ind Coope in 1961 to form Allied Breweries. The brewery remained in operation until 1981, after which production transferred ...
who in 1950 converted it into a hotel. During the 1980s, the hotel became famous as the location for exterior filming of the British television soap opera ''
Crossroads Crossroads is a junction where four roads meet. Crossroads, crossroad, cross road(s) or similar may also refer to: Film and television Films * ''Crossroads'' (1928 film), a 1928 Japanese film by Teinosuke Kinugasa * ''Cross Roads'' (film), a ...
''. The hotel filled in as the Crossroads Motel (later known as the Kings Oak Country Hotel) and the entrance to the real hotel's conference facilities was dressed to look like the main entrance to the fictional hotel. A shot of some of the hotel rooms overlooking Penns Lake, which is on the hotel's land, were used as part of the closing credits to the show.


References

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External links


Walmley and Penns Mill page

Hotel website
{{Birmingham Buildings Hotels in Birmingham, West Midlands Sutton Coldfield Ramada