August 17, 2025
Baddesley has Saxon origins, although no buildings from the time remain. A man called Baeddi, Badde, or Bade drove his cattle up to the Forest of Arden and made a protected clearing in the wood for extra grazing. Such a clearing was known as a ‘leah’ or ‘ley’ – hence Badde’s Ley.
In about 1100, the then Lord of the Manor, Roger de Mowbray, gave the Baddesley estate to Walter de Bisege. Baddesley remained in the Bisege family for four generations until Walter’s great-granddaughter, Mazera, who was heir to the property, married Sir Thomas de Clinton in about 1290, and the name of the estate became Baddesley Clinton.
The estate changed hands several times until it was acquired by an influential lawyer who went on to become Under-Treasurer of the Exchequer, John Brome, in 1438. Baddesley was improved by Brome into a house of status.
Priest Holes
Under the rule of Queen Elizabeth I, priests were often imprisoned, tortured, and even killed. Priest holes were specially concealed places within houses where they could hide away safely during this time when Catholics were being persecuted.
The priest hole in Baddesley Clinton was an unused privy. This is looking down into the bottom of the priest hole; however, the hidden door to the priest hole was on the second floor.
While the house is an archetypal medieval manor house, the function, shape, and decoration of almost every room have been modified by the Ferrers, a family of Catholic recusants who began living at Baddesley Clinton in 1517 and stayed for the next four hundred years. The architecture is a blend of medieval and Tudor styles.
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18th-century leather panels with painted floral designs
Fireplaces
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Woodwork
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The gorgeous, wide planks for flooring
The home had a draw bridge at one time
The counterweight for the drawbridge
A narwhal tusk given to William de Ferrers by King Philip III of France, around 1233.
The Gardens
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He couldn’t resist, just one more house before James put us on the train back to Oxford. It was an amazing, exhausting, history-filled week. Thank you James, we can never sing your praises loud enough for all you did.