Middleton Hall Blog

The 2nd February 2026 is World Ostrich Day and to mark this, as well as the 350th anniversary of the year of the publication of Francis Willughby’s Ornithologia, this post will focus on some of the description of the ostrich provided in Ornithologia. Francis Willughby and John Ray had actually seen an ostrich. They saw it on their European Tour, on 30th April 1663, when they were in Brussels, in what is today Belgium. They wrote that between Coudenberg Palace and Bruxelles Pa

On 28th January 1376, the husband of an owner of Middleton Hall lodged a complaint with the justices in Lindsey, Lincolnshire after he had been attacked whilst carrying out official duties. His name was John Dymoke and he was the husband of Margaret de Ludlow, the great-granddaughter of Philip de Marmion via his youngest daughter Joan. In 1349, Margaret had inherited half of what had been her grandmother’s third of Middleton, but in 1362 Margaret and John had sold her sixth t

The 25th January 2026 is the 300th anniversary of the birth of an owner of Middleton Hall, Francis Willoughby 3rd Lord Middleton, who was born on that date in 1726. Francis was the eldest son of Francis Willoughby, 2nd Lord Middleton, and Mary Edwards. He was educated at Bury St Edmund’s School and then, in 1744, at Jesus College, University of Cambridge. Following his father’s death in 1758, Francis inherited Middleton and the remainder of the Willoughby Estates. He continue

The next entry in the Middleton household accounts for Sir Henry Willoughby in 1526 was dated as the 22 nd  January. It was again described as money to Sir Henry Willoughby for him to play cards. This time the amount was 4 pence, which was the equivalent of about £7.35 today.   In this post we are providing instructions for another Tudor card game that was mentioned in Francis Willughby’s Book of Games. This time it is the game Laugh and Lie Down. It is a type of “fishing” ga

The 17th January is World Waterfowl Day, the purpose of which is to raise public awareness, knowledge and interest in various species of waterfowl such as ducks, swans and geese. Therefore, in this post, we will be raising awareness of one species of waterfowl mentioned in Francis Willughby’s Ornithologia that is known today as the Mute Swan. In Ornithologia, Willughby called the Mute Swan the Tame Swan or Cygnus mansuetus . Furthermore, in his earlier Catalogue of English Bi

The next entry in the Middleton household accounts for Sir Henry Willoughby in 1526 was dated 11 th  January. It was described as a payment for the carriage of a tope of figs and another tope of raisins and 2 sugar loaves. The amount was 17 pence, which was the equivalent of about £31.26 today.   A tope is an historical unit of measurement in England, which specifically was used to measure a quantity of dried fruit. In this definition a tope was a basket or a measure equivale

This post contains the next two entries in the Middleton household accounts for Sir Henry Willoughby in 1526. The first entry was dated 8th January and was described as money to Mrs Mary Fitton, on the commandment of Sir Henry Willoughby. The amount was 6 shillings 8 pence, which was the equivalent of about £147.09 today. Mary Fitton was the daughter of Jane Harbottle née Willoughby and the granddaughter of Sir Henry Willoughby. The second entry was undated. It was described

The 5th January is National Bird Day! Birds are a very important historic topic at Middleton Hall and in 2026 they are especially so because it is also the 350th anniversary of the first publication of Francis Willughby’s Ornithologia. In 1672, John Ray made a deathbed promise to Francis Willughby to finish Willughby’s work on natural history. With the publication of Ornithologia (Ornithology), which he compiled whilst still at Middleton Hall, Ray fulfilled part of his promis

The next entry in the Middleton household accounts for Sir Henry Willoughby in 1526 was dated as the 4th January. It was again described as money to Sir Henry Willoughby for him to play cards. The amount was 19 pence, which was the equivalent of about £34.93 today. In the previous post, we explained the origins of card playing and the nature of the deck in Tudor times. However, what type of games were played? It is known that popular card games played in the Tudor era include

Happy New Year to everyone! Welcome to another year of snapshots into the life of Sir Henry Willoughby and those at Middleton Hall through his household accounts. The 1526 accounts that have survived are more extensive than those of 1525 because not only have parts of the general household book survived but also extracts from the books covering food purchases and other Estate activities too. This is the last complete year of accounts from the lifetime of Sir Henry Willoughby

The next three entries in the Middleton household accounts of Sir Henry Willoughby for 1525 were dated as the 31st December. All three relate to the festivities held at Middleton Hall on New Year’s Eve. The first entry was described as a reward to the players of Upper Broughton, Nottinghamshire. They received 2 shillings, which was the equivalent of about £44.13 today. The second entry was described as a reward to a player that had come from Lichfield. It was for 16 pence, wh

The next two entries in the Middleton household accounts of Sir Henry Willoughby for 1525 were both dated as the 28th December. The first was described as a reward to the child bishop of Lichfield. It was for 6 shillings 8 pence, which was the equivalent of about £147.09 today. The second entry was described as a reward to the bishop’s servants and the amount for this was 20 pence, which was the equivalent of about £36.77 today. These entries refer to a popular English mediev

29th January 2025 is the start of the new lunar year and this year is the year of the wood snake. In Chinese astrology an animal is paired with a natural element and the last time the year of the wood snake occurred was 60 years ago. In Chinese culture the snake can represent wisdom and agility and when combined with wood it can also emphasise growth and creativity. Therefore, we thought this an opportune time to talk about snakes at Middleton Hall. The Nature Trail at Middle

The short answer to this question is no. In fact, many historical surveyors have commented on how they have given up trying to fathom why a lot of things were done in the manner they were during the Georgian Renovation of Middleton Hall! The current front door has been in that location since the last phase of the Georgian Renovation, c.1759. Before that time, that location was actually part of the north wall of the 16th century first floor external Gallery Corridor. In the ea

Recently a special two-part documentary series has been shown on Channel 5 called Ice Age: Apocalypse. One might wonder why this show might have any relevance to Middleton. Over the last few years, we have been researching the much wider history of Middleton and the Ice Age has managed to make repeated and often unexpected appearances. The oldest archaeological discovery at Middleton is a Palaeolithic Acheulian ovate hand axe, which is thought to date to over 200,000 years ag

From the time of Francis Willughby FRS in the 17th century to the modern day, the study of birds has been an important activity at Middleton Hall. In 1975, 50 years ago this year, the area around Middleton Pool was registered by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) as a significant habitat for birds. This was two years after it had also been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. At the time that it was registered it was stated that, in the vicinity of Middle

500 years ago … 1525. King Henry VIII is on the throne and his wife is still Queen Catherine of Aragon. Middleton Hall is owned by Sir Henry Willoughby and it was his principal residence. Sir Henry had been a highly skilled soldier and had been a Knight of the Body to not only King Henry VII but also King Henry VIII. However, Sir Henry was now about 74 years old. In 1911, the Manuscripts Commission published a report providing information on a number of the personal papers be

The next entry for the Middleton household accounts of Sir Henry Willoughby in 1525 was for the 10th February. This was described as a reward paid to a minstrel of the Lord of Derby. The minstrel was paid 12 pence. This was the equivalent of about £22.06 today and at that time was the equivalent, at that time, of a day’s wage for a skilled tradesman. The Lord of Derby referenced in this entry would have been Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby. For centuries, the Earls of Derby

For this entry in the Middleton household accounts of Sir Henry Willoughby from 1525, we get to wish everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day a day early! This entry was described as a reward to my Master’s valentine for Saint Valentine’s Day and was dated 13th February. His gift to his valentine was 4 pence, which is the equivalent of about £7.35 today. Sir Henry Willoughby was married four times. His first wife was Margaret, the daughter of Sir Robert Markham, and she died about 1

Middleton Hall’s continually evolving form is one of its unique architectural characteristics and a large part of the form that it has today is due to John Averill’s Renovation. This Renovation began soon after John Averill, a farmer and industrialist, and his family took up residence at Middleton Hall. Although John had purchased Middleton Hall at auction in December 1924, the purchase did not immediately evict the existing tenant and thus John did not take up immediate resi