Steeped in history yet Aston Hall poses questions for the future
AFEW weeks ago we took our granddaughter to Aston Hall. Our family were absorbed by a beautiful retelling of the story of Rapunzel, a fairy tale collected by the brothers Grimm, about a girl locked in a tower where the only means of access is by using her long hair as a rope.
Then we explored the house. Aston Hall was built nearly 400 years ago, between 1618 and 1635, when Birmingham was just a small settlement around a crossing of the river Rea, a few miles away. The Hall was surrounded by green fields and forests.
During the English civil war, King Charles I stayed there ahead of the Battle of Edgehill in 1642. The next year it was besieged by the Parliamentarians – damage to the Great Oak staircase by cannonballs was never fully repaired.
The Hall was built by the Holte family, who lived in the hall for nearly 200 years. But when the family died out in 1817, their successors rented it to James Watt junior, son of the inventor, who lived there till his death in 1848.
Watt’s father (1698-1782) lived in Glasgow. His son became a skilled maker and repairer of scientific instruments. He also began experimenting with improved steam engines, and when he moved to Birmingham and went into partnership with Matthew Boulton, this became a profitable business.
They sold their first condensing steam engine in 1776. In 1796 they set up Soho Foundry – now another museum in the hands of the Birmingham Museums Trust – to manufacture them. Many were used for pumping water out of mines in Cornwall and the Black Country. Others were exported to plantations in the Caribbean where they crushed sugar cane.
In 1780, the factory made 41 steam engines. After his father’s death in 1819, James Watt junior, with Matthew Boulton’s son, effectively ran the factory, until his own death in 1848.
In 1858 it was sold to a private company for use as a museum, and in 1864 to the City Corporation. In 1897, some of this land was sold to Aston Villa Football Club, who called
the end of the site nearest the Hall the Holte End. Much later, in 1972, land to the east of the Hall became part of the Aston Expressway.
Birmingham expanded rapidly in the 19th century. By 1864, Aston Hall’s gardens and parkland were surrounded by workshops, factories, houses and small shops. But what I found most interesting were the links to slavery; the Watt and Boulton families made money from Caribbean plantations worked by slaves.
Displays in the Hall show imported sugar, cocoa, coffee, tobacco and cotton – all produced by slaves – while china from the Potteries and textiles made in Lancashire and Yorkshire were exported all over the world, not least in exchange for slaves.
There is an extraordinary painting, from about 1745, of six
well-dressed white people playing cards. At the side of the picture, dressed for the occasion, are a girl serving tea and a young black slave.
It is well understood that Birmingham made shackles, chains and locks to hold slaves, as well as guns, large and small. But the links of Watt and Boulton and other members of the Lunar Society – effectively the creators of Birmingham in the 18th century – to slavery, are much less appreciated.
Aston Hall is a Grade I-listed building and an important part of Birmingham’s history. It is also an underutilised asset.
It has been suggested that it should be sold off to reduce the City’s debts. But who would purchase it and what could they do with it? There is no easy way in
which lifts could be installed, and without them the Long Gallery on the first floor – the room where King Charles I slept – and the kitchens in the basement are inaccessible to people who cannot climb stairs. And none of its rooms, other than the entrance hallway, is suitable for weddings or celebrations with more than 100 guests. Maintenance is expensive, also. Aston Hall needs visitors by the coachload.
It could do with a relaunch, perhaps as a set of experiences. Slavery could be one. There are ghosts and spirits associated with the Hall, and they could be another. It offers a splendid framework for a retelling of Birmingham history.
Maybe it could create a big car park which football fans could use on match days, but there is no obvious site for this.
In short, Aston Hall is a great part of Birmingham’s history, but a real challenge for the future.
■ Aston Hall is at present only open to school parties. It will reopen for the public in May.