March 1925 Auction at Middleton Hall

In the Tamworth Herald, on 14th March 1925, it was advertised that an auction was to be held at Middleton Hall on the 24th, 25th, 26th and 27th of March 1925 at the instructions of the executors of the late Egbert de Hamel. The sale was to begin at 11am each day and it added that refreshments were provided.

The auction was to include all of the household furniture and, specifically, the contents of the entrance hall, banqueting hall, dining and drawing rooms, library, billiard room, ten bed and dressing rooms, store room, kitchen and five greenhouses.

Egbert de Hamel on dogcart with horse "Good Friday", in front of the entrance to Middleton Hall. Courtesy of Philip and William de Hamel.

Available items that were mentioned included valuable oil paintings, prints, engravings, books, garden tools, plants, a phaeton, a brougham, a dogcart, harnesses and saddlery, agricultural implements and 2½ ricks of “excellent” hay (about 22 tons). Animals were also listed including: two carriage horses; one work horse; six dairy cattle; 130 head of poultry; and the remainder of Egbert’s prize pedigree herd of Tamworth pigs, which consisted of 3 sows, 3 boars, 9 gilts and 12 hogs.

We only recently became aware of this specific advert. For all of the details it contains, just one sentence in the advert has had a significant alteration to the vital history of Middleton Hall. The archive at Middleton Hall had an old clipping from the Tamworth Herald that made reference to the same auction, but it was from an earlier publication and crucially did not mention that the auction was organised by the executors of Egbert de Hamel.

The de Hamel family were the last tenants of Middleton Hall when it belonged to the Willoughby family. At the auction of the Middleton Estate in December 1924, Middleton Hall was purchased by John Averill. It had therefore been assumed, until a week ago, that the auction in March 1925 had been organised by John Averill after he had taken possession. Thus, the date range we had for the de Hamel tenancy was 1886-1924. However, now, as a result of this advert, it is 1886-1925 because we now know with certainty that the de Hamel tenancy continued after the sale of the Middleton Hall Estate and only ended when Egbert died on 24th January 1925.

The challenge for Middleton Hall Trust is now to correct every mention of the de Hamel tenancy date range …!

Further Reading: "Middleton Hall, Nr. Tamworth", Tamworth Herald, 14 March 1925.

Author - Debbie Jordan, Middleton Hall Volunteer.

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