Countryside Day at Blithfield Hall

CPRE’s Countryside Day is a celebration of the countryside and all it has to offer. To mark the occasion, members and supporters of CPRE Staffordshire enjoyed a tour of the historic Blithfield Hall near Rugeley on 7th September.

Following a tour of St Leonard’s Church, which is mentioned in the Domesday Book, and the interior of the house – not normally open to the public – the Great Hall made a wonderful setting for an AGM. Visitors then had a chance to take in the impressive views over the surrounding countryside and Blithfield Reservoir, now an SSSI, followed by a walk to view the many ancient and veteran trees in the Grove.

Home to generations of the Bagot family over the past 900 years, Blithfield Hall had by the 1940s fallen into a state of disrepair. The 5th Baron Lord Gerald Bagot sold the house and his 650-acre estate to the Staffordshire Water Works Company for the creation of Blithfield Reservoir.

However, when Lady Nancy Bagot, who had married Caryl, the 6th Baron, arrived in Staffordshire from Australia in 1946, she was determined to buy the house and 30 acres of gardens back. She began renovating and restoring it, and later became a Vice-President of CPRE Staffordshire.