Middleton Hall Blog

The 25th April 2026 is World Penguin Day. To mark this, and the 350th anniversary of the publication of Francis Willughby’s Ornithologia, this post will focus on part of a description of a penguin in Ornithologia. The species in Ornithologia that actually bore the name penguin was the now extinct species known today as the Great Auk. The Great Auk is considered by many as the “original penguin”. When Western seamen visited the Southern Hemisphere and came across birds with a

The 21st April 2026 is World Curlew Day. To mark this, and the 350th anniversary of the publication of Francis Willughby’s Ornithologia, this post will focus on part of the description of the Eurasian Curlew from Ornithologia. Willughby gave the common English name of this bird as the Curlew, but noted that the males were often called the Jack Curlew. He also provided an alternative name of Numenius sive Arquata. In 1758, Carl Linnaeus gave it the taxonomical binominal name o

The 20th April 2026 is International Cuckoo Day. To mark this, and the 350th anniversary of the publication of Francis Willughby’s Ornithologia, this post will focus on part of the description of the Common Cuckoo in Ornithologia. Willughby knew this bird by the name of Cuckow or Cuculus. In 1758, Linnaeus gave it the taxonomical binominal name of Cuculus canorus, which remains its modern name. The Cuckoo in Francis Willughby's Ornithologia In Ornithologia, the Cuckoo’s leng

The next three entries in the Middleton household accounts for Sir Henry Willoughby in 1526 were dated 17th April. The first was described as payment for bread and wine at Easter at Drayton Bassett Church and the amount was 6 pence, which was the equivalent of about £11.03 today. The second was described as payment for oil and chrism and the amount was 4 pence, which was the equivalent of about £7.35 today. Finally, the third was a payment to Sir William, the parish priest of

The next entry in the Middleton household accounts for Sir Henry Willoughby in 1526 was dated 15th April. It was described as payment for showbread and wine. The amount was 1 penny, which was the equivalent of about £1.84 today. This entry poses a lot of questions that we have been unable to answer. There is no question that Sir Henry Willoughby was a very devout Catholic. However, showbread is categorically not a feature of the Catholic religion. It is only present in the Je

The 15th April 2026 is World Art Day. A number of reproductions of paintings of the Willoughby family are on display at Middleton Hall. To mark World Art Day, this post will focus on the artistic history of two of these paintings. The original paintings of Sir Francis I Willoughby and his wife Elizabeth Littleton were commissioned on 13th September 1573. In the Middleton household accounts, it was recorded that Sir Francis paid 10 shillings (about £119.11 today) for his portr

The 14th April 2026 is World Puffin Day. To mark this, and the 350th anniversary of the publication of Francis Willughby’s Ornithologia, this post will focus on part of the description of the Atlantic Puffin from Ornithologia. In Francis Willughby’s time, the bird that is known as the Puffin today was not known as it in England. Confusingly, what was known as the Puffin in England in his time is today known as the Manx Shearwater. Ornithologia provides many British folk names

The 13th April 2026 is the 850th anniversary of the founding of an abbey by an owner of Middleton. On 13th April 1176, Robert III de Marmion, 2nd Baron Marmion of Tamworth, officially founded the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Barbery, which was located in the communes of Barbery and Bretteville-sur-Laize in Calvados, Normandy, about 20km south of Caen. On 14th November 1140, Robert III’s father, Robert II de Marmion, 1st Baron Marmion of Tamworth and Lord of Fontenay-le-Marmion in N

The 11th April 2026 is National Board Game Day and to mark this day we are providing details of a board game from Francis Willughby’s Book of Games: Nine Men’s Morris. This game has been played in England since the Middle Ages, but is believed to date back much further to at least the Roman Empire. It has always been an internationally played game. It had numerous other names in English such as merels, mills and ninepenny marl. The board consisted of three squares drawn insi

The chimneys of the Tudor Barn at Middleton Hall are an important visible remnant of the first stage of the construction of Middleton Hall on its current site. This construction phase began in about 1220, during the de Marmion period of ownership and shortly after their lands had been returned to them following the First Barons’ War. This construction phase is very obvious at Middleton Hall because it used a very specific red sandstone to create sandstone plinth foundations.

The next entry in the Middleton household accounts for Sir Henry Willoughby in 1526 was dated 4th April. It is a repeat of an entry from the previous April and was described as a reward to someone who had brought word of where red deer lay by the side of Maxstoke, Warwickshire. The amount was also 4 pence, which was the equivalent of about £7.35 today. This entry is not in the hunting season for almost all types and sex of deer. The hunting season for does (female deer) was S

The next three entries in the Middleton household accounts for Sir Henry Willoughby in 1526 were undated except for the month. However, from their location in the accounts, it can be determined that their date was probably either the 2nd or 3rd of April. The amount for each of these individual entries was 4 pence, which was the equivalent of about £7.35 today. The first entry was described as a reward to the young men of the town (Middleton village) that gathered for the chur

The next three entries in the Middleton household accounts for Sir Henry Willoughby in 1526 were all made on 1st April, which was Easter Sunday. The first entry was described as a payment at Easter for bread and wine for Middleton Church and the amount was 9 pence, which was the equivalent of about £16.55 today. The second entry was described as a payment for oil and chrism and the amount was 4 pence, which was the equivalent of about £7.35 today. Finally, the third entry was

The next two entries in the Middleton household accounts for Sir Henry Willoughby in 1526 were both dated as Shere Thursday. Shere Thursday was the ancient name in English for what became Maundy Thursday, which is the Thursday before Easter. The word “shere” meant “clean” or “bright”. The name referred to the act of cleaning which was a key feature of the day and it is known to have been customary for men to have their beards shorn as part of this. The word maundy, which has

The next entry in the Middleton household accounts for Sir Henry Willoughby in 1526 was described as money paid to Thomas Slade for holy water for the three quarters due to him on Our Lady’s Day. Lady Day was the common English name for the Feast of the Annunciation, which was celebrated on 25th March. The amount was 12 pence, which was the equivalent of about £22.06 today. St John's Church, Middleton, Warwickshire, 2015. Photograph taken by Debbie Jordan. There is some uncer

The next entry in the Middleton household accounts for Sir Henry Willoughby in 1526 was undated except for being in March. It was described as money paid to the wives of Slade and Robert James to cover their costs for watching with a prisoner that was hanged at “Basset Cross”. The amount was 3 shillings 10 pence, which was the equivalent of about £84.58 today. Both Slade and Robert James are known to have been servants and tenants of Sir Henry Willoughby at Middleton. The pla

The 22nd–26th March 2026 is World Osprey Week. 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 part of the description of the Osprey provided in Ornithologia. The Osprey is particularly problematic in Ornithologia. The size and other characteristics of the Osprey caused significant problems for Willughby, Ray and other later naturalists because it was an intermediate species that did no

The next entry in the Middleton household accounts for Sir Henry Willoughby in 1526 was dated 22nd March. It was described as money paid to cover the costs for Sir Henry’s servants, John Lewissay (who compiled the Middleton household accounts) and William Nottman, to go to Berwick-upon-Tweed in Northumberland in order to speak with Dr Thomas Magnus. The amount was 20 shillings, which was the equivalent of about £441.28 today. Dr Thomas Magnus was a churchman, administrator an

The 20th March 2026 is World Sparrow Day. 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 part of the description of the House Sparrow provided in Ornithologia. World Sparrow Day aims to raise awareness of the declining population of the House Sparrow, which has declined by over 60% since the 1970s in the UK and has faced a similar decline worldwide in the same time period. The cause of

The 19th March 2026 is National Poultry Day. To mark this and the 350th anniversary of the year of the publication of Francis Willughby’s Ornithologia, this post will focus on the various medicinal uses for chickens that were detailed in Ornithologia. It is known that Francis Willughby and John Ray prepared medicines using the stills in the Stone Building at Middleton Hall. PLEASE NOTE: none of the medicinal uses detailed in this post are advised today. However, a few do bear