Dovecliff Hall

The house was built in the 1790s on a 40-acre site at Dove Cliff, by the side of the River Dove, for Thomas Thornewill, a forge-owner from Stretton. It was inherited by his son Edward, whose widow lived there until her death in 1880. The following year Edward's son sold the estate, together with the Stretton iron-works, to William Joseph Smith of Alvaston, Derbyshire. Smith's widow sold the estate in 1897 to Hugh Spencer Charrington, a Burton-on-Trent brewer, who was already the tenant. The house passed into the Bass family when Caroline, the daughter of Lord Bass, another well-known Burton brewer, married into the Charrington family at the same time that the Bass and Charrington breweries…

Thomas Thornewill (1760-1843) built Dovecliff Hall in about 1790 shortly after he was married. Thomas was the son of Thomas Thornewill (1719-1786) who owned a spade factory in Burton upon Trent and had converted a ruined corn mill near Stretton into a forge for hammering and plating iron. Thomas inherited this business in 1786 when his father died. Two years later in 1788 he married Mary Harvey in Birmingham. Thomas expanded the business further and became a company called Thornewill and Co., iron masters. His wife Mary died in 1805. In 1830 he commissioned an engraver to draw a picture of Dovecliff which is shown. Thomas died in 1843 and his son Edward inherited Dovecliff and the family…