The Natural World

This fifth entry in the Middleton household account of Sir Henry Willoughby in 1525 series contains four entries from the accounts. The first was dated as 29th March 1525 and the remainder just as “at the same time”. The first of these four entries was a reward to someone from Walsall, Staffordshire, who had brought the court rolls in order to have the copy for Richard Hill’s land. All that is currently known about this Richard Hill is that he was a tenant of Sir Henry Willo

It is often said at Middleton Hall that you are a bona fide Middleton historian when you cannot go on holiday or watch a television programme without coming across a connection to Middleton’s history! Recently Channel 5 aired a two-part documentary series called “Volcano with Dara O’Briain”. One may think that there would be little chance of connecting volcanoes with Middleton’s history but in 1664 two residents of Middleton Hall, Francis Willughby and John Ray, happened to b

The last entry for April in the 1525 Middleton household accounts of Sir Henry Willoughby was described as a reward to someone that had brought Sir Henry news of red deer that lay beyond Meriden, Warwickshire. The amount was 4 pence, which was the equivalent of about £7.35 today. It was undated but there are similar entries to this in the accounts in other years, normally dated around the 28th April. Middleton Hall was located in a deer park. The first record of this deer par

In our previous post to mark British Tomato Fortnight, we mentioned that historically the tomato was viewed as poisonous. At Middleton Hall, this then invites the question of what did our famous resident botanist John Ray say about the tomato in the 17th century? John Ray’s masterpiece, Historia Plantarum , contains multiple entries that would be considered as synonyms of the tomato today. One that is particularly interesting is in the appendix to Historia Plantarum volume 2

It is British Tomato Fortnight (27th May-9th June 2025)! We thought that this was an opportune time to highlight another of Hanbury Barclay’s alterations to the grounds of Middleton Hall in about 1875: the construction of the Tomato House. Hanbury’s Tomato House was built within the Large Walled Garden on the western side, just to the south of the 18th century large glasshouse. It was a shallow structure with a brick base and a framed glass top that opened on the western and

20th May 2025 is World Bee Day! Did you know that there is a species of bee named after one of Middleton Hall’s residents? In 1802, the species Megachile willughbiella was named in honour of Francis Willughby FRS. It is commonly known as Willughby’s leaf-cutting bee and Francis was the first person to describe it and its life-cycle. On 5th May 1670, at a meeting of the Royal Society, some specimens were shown of what was thought to be worms wrapped in leaves and lodged in se

The 7th June 2025 is Butterfly Education and Awareness Day and, to mark this, we thought we would write about “Mr Ray’s Purple Streak Butterfly”. This was the English common name given by James Petiver in 1702 to the butterfly that is commonly known today as the Purple Hairstreak (Favonius quercus) . James Petiver was a friend and sometime assistant of John Ray. Petiver was subsequently described as “the father of British butterflies” as a result of his detailed work on the i

This is the last post in the series on the structural alterations that the tenant of Middleton Hall, Hanbury Barclay, made at Middleton Hall in about 1875. It focuses on his Cucumber House. The Cucumber House was constructed in the Small Walled Garden, directly to the south of and parallel to the lean-to glasshouse. Plan of the layout of the structures of the Small Walled Garden in c.1880. Drawn by Richard Jordan. The cucumber originates from India. It was a favourite

It’s National Moth Week 2025 (19th-27th July)! Sycamore Moth (Acronicta aceris) in the Large Walled Garden at Middleton Hall, 2010. Photograph taken by Harvey Skelcher. When John Ray was compiling Historia Insectorum , he wrote that he thought that he had managed to describe every variety of English butterfly, which actually he nearly had, but despaired because he thought he would never manage to describe all of the different species of moths. Small Fan-Footed Wave Moth (Idae

This post contains two entries from the Middleton accounts of Sir Henry Willoughby in 1525. The first of these concerned Sir Henry Willoughby’s activity in relation to his commission from King Henry VIII to quell the Lammas Day Rebellion in Coventry. This entry also correlates with the request in the letter by Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset, for them to meet in response to receiving their commissions. However, the entry also provides information as to where and when they

The next entry in the Middleton accounts of Sir Henry Willoughby in 1525 is one of the few remaining ones for this year that specifically refers to the activities of Sir Henry. This entry was dated as 22nd August and was described as being his costs to Feckenham Forest in Worcestershire and rewards to the keepers of the Forest. It added that he had gone there with “my lord prior” of Kenilworth and Sir Edward Ferrers. The amount was 34 shillings 6 pence, which was the equivale

The third entry in December in the Middleton household accounts of Sir Henry Willoughby for 1525 was also undated except for the month. It was described as a payment for Chingleton’s costs to go to Leicester Forest to fetch a doe and staying there for three days at the manor of Thomas Grey, 2nd Lord Marquess of Dorset. The amount was 21 pence, which was the equivalent of about £38.61 today. This is the only known record that mentions the servant Chingleton in the Middleton Ma

The next entry in the Middleton household accounts of Sir Henry Willoughby in 1525 was dated the 12 th October. It was a payment to cover the costs incurred by Mr Swinfen who had, on the commandment of Sir Henry, taken the hawks from Middleton to King Henry VIII in London. The amount was 10 shillings, which was the equivalent of about £220.64 today. In comparative terms, this was the equivalent of about 16 days wages for a skilled tradesman at that time. It is believed that

Another foreign species of tree that was introduced to Middleton Hall as a specimen tree about 150 years ago, during the tenancy of Hanbury Barclay, was the oriental thuja or Platycladus orientalis . This species is native to northern China and was first introduced to England in 1740. In China, some Taoist groups revered this tree and built temples around specimens of the tree in order to protect them from being cut down. This species, even as recently as the 19th century, wa

Amongst the foreign specimen trees that were introduced to Middleton Hall in about 1875, by the tenant Hanbury Barclay was the deodar cedar, or Cedrus deodara. Deodar cedar in the Glade at Middleton Hall, obscuring the view of the Conservatory, c.1890. The Revised English Landscape Garden Style was influenced heavily by the orient. This extended to the types of species introduced, with gardens of this Style embracing oriental plants. The deodar cedar is just one of these orie

During the tenancy of Hanbury Barclay at Middleton Hall the gardens of Middleton Hall embraced the Revised English Landscape Garden Style. His changes occurred about 1875, roughly 150 years ago. One feature of this Style was specimen trees. With certainty, it is known that three species of foreign trees had been introduced to the grounds of Middleton Hall as specimen trees before the end of the tenancy of Hanbury Barclay. This post focuses on the oldest of these three that we

Francis Willughby and John Ray undertook an experiment at Middleton Hall to discover how sap moved in trees. The results of this experiment were presented to the Royal Society in 1669. It is considered a revolutionary experiment because it was one of the earliest experiments ever undertaken to specifically investigate an aspect of plant physiology. Moreover, the result of their experiment spurred many others to also investigate aspects within this field. The idea to undertake

Francis Willughby and John Ray decided to undertake an experiment at Middleton Hall to determine whether oak trees would grow more successfully if they were grown directly from an acorn planted in the desired location instead of being moved as a sapling to the desired location. It is notoriously difficult to successfully replant an oak tree as a sapling and the basis for their theory was that they had observed that oak trees grew better where the acorns had fallen to the grou

It's National Tree Week! This year National Tree Week is the 22nd-30th November. It is organised by the National Tree Council and the aim is to get people involved in planting trees and appreciate the importance of trees to the environment. Its timing marks the start of the winter planting season, which is when the ground is most suitable for planting trees. Since the time that Middleton Hall Trust was established, we have regularly observed National Tree Weeks with tree plan