Wander down the central path of Castle Bromwich Graveyard and on the right hand side you will find three large graves dedicated to eleven members of the Chattock family.
The Chattocks were a large influential family based in Castle Bromwich and Solihull, Warwickshire. They were landed gentry owning land in Warwickshire and also in Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and in Dorset nearly 200 miles South of Castle Bromwich.
The Chattocks and William the Conqueror
The Chattocks can trace their ancestry back to 1241 in Castle Bromwich, according to local records. The earliest spelling in the 13th and 14th centuries was “Schattok” and not Chattock.
By the middle of the eighteenth century, the Chattock family, had been in the Birmingham area for at least six century, their original land probably having been meted out to them by William the Conqueror.
The Chattocks and Park Hall
They are well documented in the history of the area and once lived at the medieval manor Park Hall. Documents in the Descriptive Catalogue of Ancient Deeds show that in 1606 Thomas Shattock held the lease to Park Hall, and that his son, John, succeeded him as leaseholder in 1612. The Manor House was in a meadow surrounded by a dry moat and had a deer park which was fashionable among aristocrats of the time. In 1802 Thomas Chattock and his family are recorded as living at Park Hall.
In 1884, Castle Bromwich antiquarian Christopher Chattock wrote of Park Hall: “The place could not be surpassed for natural beauty and romantic interest, being sited opposite a hill that was studded with wild cherries, roses and honeysuckle. The river ‘gentle Theomis’ ran by the garden wall and the bottom of the woods, Park Hall woods were filled with gigantic oaks, ash, beech and firs which overhung and darkened the clear crystal water of the River Tame below.”
The Chattock family also lived at Haye Hall. This was probably the manor house of Hodge Hill. Richard II (r.1377-1399) permitted Henry Chattock to fortify the hall and as it had a double moat, the original building was probably built in the 13th century, although it was rebuilt on several occasions. The moat is shown on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map but was drained c1850 and is now built over. This moated site was abandoned and Haye House was built to replace it near Ermington Crescent.
The Chattocks also have proven documented links in the 1500s to ownership of land in the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset 200 miles South of Castle Bromwich. We know this because Henry “Chattocke” of Purbeck appointed his brother John “Chattocke” as his Attorney to manage “all of his lands in Castel Brammage”. The first names are repetitive in Castle Bromwich as they are in Somerset so; Henry, John, William and Thomas, are the repeated names of fathers, sons, uncles, cousins, with the occasional Robert, Richard and Christopher when they had more than three sons.
REFERENCES
https://billdargue.jimdofree.com/placenames-gazetteer-a-to-y/places-h/hodge-hill/
