Hay Hall

A moated house or manor was first founded at the site in about 1275 by the De La Haye family and rebuilt in 1430. Hay Hall passed on to the Este family in 1423, when the heiress Marian De La Haye married Thomas Este. They are commemorated in St. Edburgha's Church at Yardley by a wall sculpture depicting them. The Este family owned and occupied Hay Hall until the late seventeenth century, after which the property changed hands frequently and much of the land was sold to canal and railway companies. In 1917 the Patented Butted Tube Company purchased Hay Hall and the remaining 12 acres of land. The estate was developed into new tube works and factories but Hay Hall was saved from demolition.…

The central part of the house features an arch-braced collar-beam roof truss, typical of an open hall of the 14th or 15th century. Notable external features include exposed timber-framing on the south-eastern end wall, and a two-storied timbered porch containing a pointed arch. On the northeastern side of the building a solar wing was either originally encased in diaper-patterned brickwork, or the wing was a later addition in the 16th century. Its structure is formed in three bays divided by open roof trusses, and which were later enclosed in a dormered attic. It also features stone-mullioned windows. Inside the building Tudor wall painting and a fragment of stained glass have survived. In…