A View of Eardley ‘Olde’ Hall                         

Robert Mayer

Introduction

Most people who have lived in the Audley area will remember Eardley Hall, a large red brick building standing on the left of the road leading from Hullocks Pool Farm to Dunkirk.  That building was demolished in 1974 and for the purposes of this article serves only to locate the site of an earlier building.

The intention of this article is to portray a building long since lost, an earlier building that occupied the same site as the Eardley Hall of memory.  For an impression of the type of structure that will be described below, reference to photographs of Audley Old Hall, or a visit to Ford Green Hall, would help to set the scene.

Eardley Hall was situated in the township of Eardley End, which is one of six townships that formed the parish of Audley in north-west Staffordshire. Eardley End is almost directly north of Audley church at about three-quarters of a mile in distance.

What’s in a name?  The name Eardley may have originated as follows: Eard has been suggested as being derived from the Old English word ear meaning gravel.  Leah or ley means a meadow or clearing.[i]  From this we can deduce that the original settlement was in a clearing noted for its stony or gravelly soil.  Whatever the original meaning of the name, what can be said with some certainty is that the name is locative in that it is derived from a specific place name or locality. Perhaps the most interesting finding of recent work in the field of locative names is the conclusion that a great number of our English surnames originate with single families.[ii]   In consequence anyone with the surname Eardley will be part of a family that most probably originated in the area of Eardley End.

The name Eardley, or ‘Erdeleye’, as it then was, is recorded as early as 1327.  In the Subsidy Roll of that year Johe’ de Erdeleye paid 18d towards the cost of Edward the First’s Scotch wars.[iii]  For a reference to the location of Eardley End we have to wait until 1512, when, in a case heard in the Court of the Star Chamber, a riot was recorded at Yeardley Ende.[iv]  In 1585 we have a reference to Eardley Hall included in the vestry minutes of that year the ‘the first and best forme… upon ye South side of ye Body of ye Said Church’ went ‘wholly to ye Hall of Eardley’.[v]

The Eardley ‘Olde’ Hall was a comparatively large property. The evidence for this lies in the Hearth Tax of 1666. At a time when 80% of the population lived in a house with only one hearth, Eardley Hall had nine.[vi]  In fact, in the whole of the Parish of Audley in 1666 only Simon Unwin’s house at Talke, with twelve hearths, had more.[vii] So, in comparative terms, Eardley Hall was a substantial property in keeping with the status of the Eardley family in the parish of Audley, being mindful that the lords of the manor, the Audley family, were absentees.

The inventory of the possessions of Ann Eardley, 1676[viii]

Let us try and identify the layout of Eardley Hall and look at the possible location of the rooms that held these nine hearths. To do this we must initially look at the inventory of the will of Ann Eardley of Eardley Hall. Ann Eardley, the widow of Edward Eardley, died on the 9th September 1676, just ten years after the Hearth Tax assessment noted above. She was the last Eardley to live at Eardley Hall, although her daughter Elizabeth, who had by then married Robert Wilmot, occupied it for a short period afterwards. The valuation of the inventory of Ann Eardley’s estate took place on the 28th September 1676 and it revealed the following (original spellings retained):

The first item on this list of livestock and farm equipment to be noted is the ‘Coach and Harness’.  This item gives a good indication of not only the status but also the mobility of the senior yeomanry of the time typified by the Eardley family.  Furthermore we know the name of the coachman for Parrott tells us ‘There is a house betwixt Great Oke and Whillocks Pooll House’ that was sold about 20 years ago (1713) to ‘John Whittell who was many years coachman to old Mrs. Eardley of Eardley Hall’.[ix]

This reference to a coach and the other livestock mentioned in the inventory leads to certain conclusions about the buildings around the hall. If we have a coach then we must have a mews of some description and to maintain six horses requires stabling.  There may have been a byre, pig sty and hen coups and so it is easy to imagine a very active working farm around the hall itself.  This estate farm would have provided a varied diet to the occupier. While bread was the staple food there was also meat in plenty, as can be seen from the list of livestock above.  The Eardleys of Eardley Hall ate beef, pork, lamb, poultry, and eggs, as well as dairy products.

The estate was worked with horses. There are no oxen listed on the inventory, so as well as the coaching and riding activities the six horses would have been required for ploughing, haulage and other duties.

It is interesting that the 16 cows and heifers are valued at exactly the same price as Ann Eardley’s clothes and cash, these two items together being the most expensive on the inventory.

Another point of note from the inventory of the estate is that it tells us a little about the farming practices. The inventory was taken on 9th September and the harvest had been gathered - ‘Corne ith’ barne’; furthermore another winter crop, probably winter wheat, had been sowed - ‘Corne sowed’.  Even in mechanised times, early September is timely to have the harvest in by.  Does the inventory hint that the late summer of 1676 was warm and dry, enabling the farmers to get the harvest early?  As we have said above, horses were used to work the estate and they required food for the winter and the value of the ‘hey’ on the inventory is almost as much as that of the ‘corne’.  There is no mention of any milling equipment so we have to presume that the corn was taken to Audley Mill, at Mill End,[x] as required during the winter. In summary, the harvest was in, corn was in the barn and a new crop already sown. Furthermore, the estate had gathered the hay required to feed the animals over the winter.

The cattle listed on the inventory were probably the Staffordshire longhorn variety.  In 1602, Gervase Markham described the Staffordshire longorn as being amongst the best cattle in England, ‘black haired with large white horns tipped with black, square stately bodies and short legs’.  They were ‘especially good for tallow, hide, horn, but also good milkers and strong in labour.’[xi]  The Eardley’s cattle would have been reared and grazed on the estate’s meadows before being sold at a local market, probably Newcastle, or slaughtered to provide meat for the household.

In addition to the cattle, William Eardley also kept a small flock of sheep that provided the hall with both mutton and wool.  The women of the household would have spent time spinning both wool and flax in order to provide clothes and linen.

Having assessed the livestock and farm implements the valuers then looked inside the hall itself apparently starting from the top and working down as follows: -

To put this list of rooms into some semblance of order we have: -

a) Three cocklofts: one cockloft, other cockloft and cockloft over buttery.

b) On the first floor we have twelve chambers: hall, little hall, parlor, buttery, porch, clock, kitchen, men’s, dairy, corn, cheese and store.

c) On the ground floor we have eight rooms: hall, parlor, kitchen, dairy, two larders, buttery and the brewhouse

d)  Below ground we have a cellar

Given that in certain areas we have a definite layout of the building from a vertical viewpoint, i.e we have a buttery, a buttery chamber and a cockloft over the buttery, we can suggest a limited orientation of the rooms.

If we attempt to draw a conjectural plan of this building then it may appear as follows: -

Figure One: A conjectural plan of the interior rooms of Eardley Hall

showing the vertical relationship. No attempt has been made to

include rooms where the vertical relationship is not known.

What is the evidence for such a plan? Well, the overall shape is purely for the convenience of the drawing, and the plan allows only for rooms where their orientation is given. The corn, cheese, clock and men’s chambers are not shown because their location is not given. Similarly, the ground floor layout is typical of a prosperous yeoman’s house of circa 1670,[xii] with the parlor being entered from the hall, the hall being entered from the porch. Services were located directly off the hall.

There are several rooms whose names deserve mention. A clock chamber is recorded and this indicates that a clock was still a relatively uncommon item in 1676, sufficiently so to name a room after it.  The mention of the men’s chamber raises the question of estate/farm workers.  We have no direct evidence about the workforce required to operate the farm at this stage but we do know that when the first detailed census was taken in 1841 Eardley Hall farm had four agricultural labourers. The other evidence that we have is by making a count of the beds and this we shall do below. The last four entries on the inventory help to put the whole into context: -

             Armes(weapons?)                                      1 -  0 - 0

             Wearing apparill and money in purse       80 -  0 - 0

             Goods not seene and unprised                 0 -10 - 0

                                                                                417 -  6 - 8

Ann Eardley had clothes and cash to the value of £80, which was a very considerable sum in 1676.  The civil war had ended some thirty years earlier but prosperous families still retained weapons to a level that required valuation. These weapons would have been dusted off in the late autumn, after the harvest, at the time of the annual muster of all able-bodied men.  Finally, the overall valuation of the estate at £417 means that the Eardley family  enjoyed a prosperous and privileged social position. An examination of over two thousand yeoman’s wills that were made between 1556 and 1650 in the generally more prosperous counties of Kent and Sussex revealed an average estate value of £160.[xiii]

In itself, this is a good start. We can gain some impression of a large building with a variety of functional rooms developed to deliver a comfortable lifestyle to a wealthy yeoman farmer.

What can we learn about the nature of the rooms themselves?  What evidence have we got, if any, to enable us to describe them in more detail?  To do this we must go back in time to the death of William Eardley of Eardley Hall.

The inventory of the possessions of William Eardley, 1624[xiv]

William died in 1624, some fifty years earlier. When the inventory of William Eardley’s estate was taken on the 29th April 1624 the valuers took time to describe some of the rooms and their contents. It is interesting that this time the valuers started downstairs and moved up the house.

(Please note that, once again, the original spellings have been retained)

                                                                                                    li  -  s  -  d

In Primis In the Parlar Two Tables tenne buffets

              stooles, one Cubborde Two Chaires one

              paire of Tables, one grate one paire                            3  -  4  -  4

              of  Tonges and a fire shovell.

The parlour must have been a sizeable room as, in all, four tables and twelve stools/chairs were counted. From this entry we can also see that the parlour had a hearth with the appropriate furniture. The impression that this description gives is of a reasonably big room to which the house’s owner could retire after the rigours of the day, a room that guaranteed warmth and comfort. Comparatively small leaded windows, together with dark wooden paneling, when combined with the smoke stains from the open hearth would have produced a dark room heavy in atmosphere. The windows would have been ‘closed’ with internal wooden, sliding shutters. The parlour cupboard would have been one of the most important pieces of furniture in the house: ornately carved, it could be used to store the family silver or pewter. Perhaps one or two pieces would have been displayed, particularly on special occasions. Judging by the scorch marks on surviving pieces from this period they would also have been a convenient place for a candlestick. In 1624 Eardley Hall contained two cupboards and this gives a clear indication of the family’s wealth and status.  Certainly in the sixteenth and into the early seventeenth century, chairs were still sufficiently unusual to be regarded as a status symbol.[xv]  The chair was, therefore, given to the most important person present. We can imagine William Eardley, comfortable in his chair, perhaps reading a book by the light of a candle in front of a blazing fire. There are no mentions of carpets or rugs throughout either will and it is likely that the floor was either  solid earth or flagstone of local stone, probably sandstone.

Item in the Hall One long Table Foure Formes                            1  -  0  -  0

The hall was the most important room in the house and this entry is particularly descriptive because of the use of the word ‘long’.  The hall, as well as the parlour in Eardley Hall, was a large room in which was located a table so big that it required two forms on either side to sit the number of people that it could accommodate. The hall would have been the focal point of the house at meal times, with the kitchen nearby.  Around this large table the family would have sat, William Eardley and perhaps important guests on chairs, the family on the forms.  There are no knives or forks mentioned in the inventory.  In the case of knives, it is probably because a knife was a personal, all-purpose tool.  It is likely that eating habits had changed little since medieval times.  Meat, on a wooden board, or trencher, was still taken from the bone by greasy fingers or teeth.

Item in the Butterie One Round Table, One Chest

             Eight Barrells, Boardes and Cannes                                 1  -15  -  0

             and Noggins.

The buttery was often used for the storage of pots and pans.  We get no impression of the size of the buttery but we are given a clear image of an entirely functional room with eight barrels counted. Most of the family possessions would have been kept in chests and they would remain the most common means of storage well into the 17th century.

Item in the Wette Larder Four Tubbs Eight boards

             Nine Basens And Beife                                                    3  -16  -  0

Here we are introduced to the concept of two larders, one dry and, in this case, one wet. The wet larder gives every indication of the size of the house – four tubs and nine basins were needed to process the needs of the household. The mention of the beef is interesting. Beef was eaten fresh in  summer and was salted and hung in  winter.  This inventory was taken in April and it is probable that the image that we should have is one of large beefs hanging from the ceiling

Item in the Pastree One Table, Two boardes, one cubbord

             and a pair of  Mustard wherles                                        0  -13 - 0

Item in the Drie Larder Nine Boardes                                            0  -  4 - 0

Item in the Kitchin Five Brasse Pottes one possenette

             one Brasse Mortar Two Chaffing dishes                          10  - 8 - 2

             Six flitches of Bacon Five spitts with

             other Implements of howsehould

The Kitchen gives a clear impression of the bustling activity as the staff prepare food for both the family, their guests and, at times, employees. Five brass pots, five spits and other household implements givean impression of several people working in the kitchen. The mention of the spits serves to emphasise the fact that the cooking was done over the open fire, a dirty and potentially dangerous occupation.  The posnet is a boiling vessel with three legs and a handle.  This would have been placed on a brandreth or a gridiron that acted as a grate.  It is interesting to note the value of the items counted in the kitchen. By 1676 this value had reduced to £5, perhaps reflecting the fact that only Ann Eardley required the kitchen services at that time.

Item in the Dayhowse Foure Brasse Pannes Two Kettles             2  -18  -  2

             one skellette with other Implements of howshould

Item in the Brewhowse ThreeComps One Eyling Fatte                6 -  1  -  8

             one Tubbe Three Pannes Three Branne

             dartes with other thinges

Most large houses had the capacity to brew beer, the universal drink of young and old and as much as 200 gallons could be made for 20 shillings.[xvi]  In keeping with the times Eardley Hall had a brewery.

The valuers then moved onto the first floor and this gives us an opportunity to count the sleeping arrangements and to compare the chambers with the inventory of 1676.

Item in the Store Chamber Three Chests one Coumpe            5  - 16  -  8

Pewter of all sortes with other Implements

             of howeshould

In the store chamber a second metal is mentioned.  On the ground floor brass pots and pans have been recorded and now we have a mention of ‘pewter of all sortes’.  This almost gives an impression of a large collection of pewter pots, jugs, mugs, tankards and plates.  As the pewter is in the store chamber, has it been withdrawn from general use?  Despite being on the first floor this chamber has no sleeping accommodation and appears to be a 15th century equivalent of a box room.

The clothes, household linen and personal items of William Eardley and his family were kept in chests. Such possessions were not normally as plenteous as today, even in the relatively well-off households such as Eardley Hall.  However, Eardley Hall contained five chests in 1624, three of them located here in the store chamber.  The more practical chest of drawers only appeared around 1650.

Item in the Parlour Chamber One Cubboard one paire

             of Bedstockes Eight Cuishions one                               11  -  9  -  4

             Featherbedde with furniture for it and                          

             other implements of househould

The general value of the contents of this room makes it highly likely that William Eardley himself used it. For further evidence see the analysis of the overall sleeping arrangements below. We also know from the description of the parlour itself on the ground floor that it was likely to be of a reasonable size. If the room divisions continued through the floors then we should consider the parlour chamber to be relatively large.

Item in the Butterie ChamberOne paire of Bedstockes,

             One Feather bedde, one boulstere, one                      3  - 18  -  0               

             Matresse and Trunke with other thinges there.

It is interesting to note that in general terms the contents of the buttery chamber are very similar to those of the parlour chamber with the exception that the buttery chamber’s contents are nearly a third of the value of the contents of the parlour chamber.  This means that we have to view the parlour chamber, unlike the buttery chamber, as being quite sumptuous, with expensive furniture and fittings.

Item in the Hall Chamber Two paire of bedstockes Two

             Feather bedds  two boulsters and other                         7  -  4  -  8

             thinges there

We know that the hall was a reasonable size from the ground floor description. Its contents seem to have a similar relative value to those in the buttery chamber, so we must presume it to be of similar status.  If we refer to the value of the contents of the hall chamber in the inventory of 1676, it becomes apparent that between 1624 and 1676 there was a change in the status of this room. In 1624 the parlour chamber had the higher value contents and was most probably the master bedroom. In 1676 the hall chamber was the principal bedroom, with contents valued at £30, almost three times those of the parlour chamber. The hall chamber was therefore, most probably, the bedroom used by Ann Eardley.

Item in the Little Chamber one paire of Beddstockes 

             Curtaines One Coverlette Three blankettes                  1  - 10  -  4

             One Chaire, One board

If the little chamber is as described then we should gain an impression of a cramped room including a bed and chair and comparatively poor quality fittings.

Item in the Porch Chamber one pair of Beddstockes

             one Feather bedde, one boulster Three                        2  -  3  - 10

             Blankettes one Chest and one Shelfe.

It is interesting that both inventories mention the porch chamber on the first floor but neither mention the porch on the ground floor. The porch not only served a practical purpose in helping to keep out draughts and improving privacy, but was also a fashionable way of making the hall look a little grander.[xvii]  For an idea of a porch chamber a visit to Ford Green Hall is a must. Alternatively, most photographs of Audley Old Hall give a good impression.[xviii]

Item in the Painted Chamber Three pair of bedstockes

             one Feather bedde and one Matresse Two                  0  - 14  -  0

             Boulsters and Foure Blankettes and other

             thinges.

This really is an intriguing entry.  What was so specific about the décor of this room to cause it to be referred to as the ‘painted chamber’? Other than the interesting name, the value of its contents indicate that this was a small low-status room.

Item in the Dayhowse Chamber Three paire of beddstockes

          three Feather beddes, three Boulsters with other thinges               4  -  4  -  8

Item in the Kitchen Chamber Two paire of Beddstocks two

           Feather beddes two Matresses seaven blankettes                       7  - 13  -  8

A count of the mattresses and feather beds indicates that the sleeping accommodation amounted to space for approximately fifteen people. 

The parlour, little and porch chambers have one bed. As the little chamber is self-descriptive and the porch chamber is also likely to be very small, there is a high probability that William Eardley slept in the parlor chamber. The buttery, hall and kitchen chambers each had accommodation for two beds.  Perhaps at least one of these was empty, in anticipation of the arrival of guests.  At the other end of the scale, the painted and dayhouse chambers both have three beds and this density would suggest that these were available either to young children, servants or agricultural labourers.  This still leaves the issue of the numbers of people in these categories.  There was a vast amount of work to be done, most of which involved long hours of heavy manual labour.  Farming methods at the time were both simple and unmechanised.  The men worked the farm while the women were involved in a large number of occupations, from housework to working in the dairy.  William Eardley had only three children, two boys and a girl, but he also had four brothers and two sisters. At some stage, in the 1560s/1570s the hall would have accommodated at least nine members of the immediate family; furthermore, most of the estate labourers would have been tenants.  So the men’s chamber of 1676 remains a mystery.

Sanitary arrangements at Eardley Hall were primitive.  A few very high-status houses of this era possessed bathrooms, but Eardley Hall does not even seem to have a ‘privy’.  A close stool or commode, emptied every day, could have provided a more elegant convenience than a chamber pot under the bed.  Such a stool is not listed on the inventory. 

Item Napperie ware                                                                          17  - 16  - 0

Item Venice glasses, greene glasse, Stone pottes other thinges       0  - 13  -  0

and bottles

Item Plate                                                                                          2  - 10  -  0

Item Bookes                                                                                       0  - 16  -  0

At the close of the 16th century, 60-70 per cent of yeomen could sign their names and almost as many could read.[xix]  William Eardley could read and it is entirely possible that earlier generations of the family could do so also as we have no evidence that it was he who collected these books.

Item Corne threshed and unthrashed                                            5  - 11  -  0

Item One great wich in the Barne                                                  1  -  6  -  8

Item Boardes Plancks and Mucke                                                   2  -  8  -  0

Item Pullen                                                                                      1  -  0  -  0

Item Foure yardes of new haire Cloth                                             0  -  4  -  0

                                                           105li. 2d.

The valuation of the corn in April 1624 makes an fascinating comparison with the position in September 1676.  In the spring of 1624 the stock of corn was valued at just over £5 whereas in September 1676, with the harvest gathered, it is valued at £22.

The continuing variety of household vessels is worthy of note; to brass and pewter we can now add glass and stone.

The Map of Eardley Hall Estate, 1720

We have one last source of evidence.  In 1720 Robert Wilmot decided to raise capital on the estate and this required Eardley Hall estate to be recorded in some detail.  The wider issue of the estate does not form part of this article but, as part of the process, a map was drawn. The part of the map relating to the hall is shown below: -

Figure Two: Detail from the Eardley Hall Estate map of 1720.  (Reproduced by permission of Stafford Record Office)

In the survey of the Estate the enclosure marked I or j as it appears on the map above is described as follows: -

                                                                                                 | A | R | P  |

|j| House out houses Orchards Gardens and fould yards |03 | 2 |14 |

|10| Cawdy Croft                                                                  |00 | 3 | 09|

To complete our ‘View of Eardley Hall’ we have to add orchards and gardens.  The enclosure in which the house is shown amounted to over three acres.

Several questions arise from the rather stylised drawing of the house itself.  The house is drawn in three dimensions and on the side has been split into six equal squares. Is this an attempt to represent a half-timbered building?  Another interpretation is that the surveyor was simply indicating that the hall was a two-story building. What interpretation can be drawn from the surveyor’s representation of the hall’s roof?  Are the comparatively wide parallel lines meant to represent slates or tiles, or was it a convention for thatch?  These are questions that are difficult to answer.  Welsh slates came into the north and midlands by waterways in the eighteenth century, so it is unlikely to be slate.[xx]  In general, material not available locally only became commonly available with the advent of suitable means of transportation.  Ordinary farmhouses in eastern parts of England may be brick built by 1660, but remoter parts of Cheshire had to wait until the age of the canals, that is after 1775.  In conclusion, therefore, the conventions shown in the drawing are likely to represent a half timbered, tiled building.[xxi]

Summary

It is that statement that starts our summary. Eardley ‘Olde’ Hall was a large half-timbered building with two storeys and a tiled roof. Immediately around it were gardens and orchards together with farm buildings such as stables, barns and byres. Inside we have high-status rooms containing valuable possessions and functional rooms that delivered to a literate owner a varied and generous diet and comfortable lifestyle.

The male line of the Eardleys of Eardley Hall failed in 1656 with the untimely death of Edward Eardley. The estate then passed by marriage to the Wilmot family later to be referred to as Eardley-Wilmot. On the 7th June 1823 Sir John Eardley-Wilmot of Berkeswell Hall in Warwickshire sold the Eardley Hall Estate to Sir John Fenton Boughey. In the agreement we see Eardley Hall Farm referred to as ‘a messuage or mansion now used as a farmhouse called Eardley Hall with outbuildings thereto and sundry pieces and parcels of land'.[xxii]

Footnote:

This article represents a small section of a much wider project encompassing the Eardley Hall, old and recent, The Eardleys of Eardley Hall, Eardley Hall Estate and indeed the Eardley Family of Audley. The author would be very pleased to hear from anyone with comments, information, memories, photographs etc. of Eardley Hall or any other of the related topics mentioned about.

The author is grateful to JC Sutton, who transcribed the wills and to Ian Bailey, Cyril Eardley and Bessie Mayer for their criticisms of earlier versions.