Oakwell Hall facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Oakwell Hall
General information
Type	Manor house
Architectural style	Elizabethan
Location	Nutter Lane, Birstall, Batley, West Yorkshire, England
Coordinates	53°44′22″N 1°40′15″W / 53.73944°N 1.67083°W / 53.73944; -1.67083 (grid reference SE2127)
Owner	Kirklees Council
Grounds	110 acres (0.45 km2)
Design and construction
Main contractor	John Batt
Designations	Grade I listed

Oakwell Hall is an amazing old house from the Elizabethan period, found in Birstall, West Yorkshire, England. It's a special building, listed as Grade I, which means it's very important. The hall is surrounded by beautiful old-fashioned gardens and a huge country park that covers about 110 acres (0.45 square kilometers).

A man named John Batt had the house built. A stone with the date 1583 carved on it likely shows when it was finished. John's father, who was from Halifax, bought the land. He collected rents for the Savile family, who lived nearby at Howley Hall.

Oakwell Hall is famous because it was featured in a book! Charlotte Brontë used it as the setting for "Fieldhead" in her novel Shirley. You might also have seen it on TV, as it's been used in many shows, including the ITV drama Victoria (UK TV series).

Discovering Oakwell Hall's Past

John Batt built Oakwell Hall after his father bought the land. His father collected rents for the Savile family, who lived at Howley Hall in Batley. The hall was made from gritstone, a type of rock. It followed a common design for the time, with a main hall in the middle and two wings on either side.

You entered through a porch and a special passage. A stone carved with the year 1583 probably marks when the house was built.

Oakwell Hall became a public property in 1928. Today, Kirklees Council owns and looks after it. Volunteers from the Friends of Oakwell Hall also help out a lot. The inside of the hall has been carefully restored to look like it did in the late 1600s. This was when the Batt family lived there. Experts studied old lists of household items to make sure everything was just right. During this work, they found original painted designs on the walls that had been hidden under layers of paint!

The BBC Television series Gunpowder (2017) even filmed some scenes at Oakwell Hall.

Exploring Inside Oakwell Hall

The Great Hall: A Grand Welcome

The Great Hall was once two stories tall. But in the mid-1600s, John Batt's grandson changed it. He removed the ceiling and added a gallery (a kind of balcony) and a huge window. This room was the main pathway through the house. It connected all the different parts and was the center of family life. It was where visitors, tenants, and business people were welcomed.

The room is not filled with too much furniture. The table is placed at one end, which was common in the late 1600s. The large size of the room was meant to impress everyone who came to visit.

The Great Parlour: A Special Family Room

In the early 1600s, the Great Parlour was the most important room. An old list from 1611 shows it had the best furniture. It also held the Batt family's collection of maps. In the 1630s, the Batts added a beautiful plaster ceiling. They also painted the wooden walls, including a landscape picture above the fireplace. Most of these original painted walls are still there today.

They used a painting method called scumbling. This made the room feel warm and grand. Not many examples of this type of decoration still exist. Later in the 1600s, dining rooms and parlours became popular for eating and entertaining guests privately. The Great Parlour is set up to show how it looked in the 1690s, as a stylish and cozy room.

The Great Parlour Chamber: John Batt's Bedroom

In 1690, John Batt used the Great Parlour Chamber as his bedroom. It even had a garderobe, which was like an old-fashioned toilet, built into the wall. The floors in this room and other family areas were covered with rush matting. This was a sign of a wealthy home and made the rooms warmer than bare wood or stone. The fireplace you see now was added in the 1800s. It's one of the few big changes made since the 1600s.

It wasn't strange to have a table and chairs in a bedroom back then. Bedrooms were used for more than just sleeping. People would entertain guests with drinks or play cards there.

The Busy Kitchen

The kitchen was one of the busiest rooms in the house. The lady of the house would oversee the female servants. They prepared food, medicines, and even pot-pourri. Many people would come and go, like tradesmen, estate workers, and servants from other wealthy families. At meal times, the servants would eat from wooden plates.

When the hall was first built, food might have been cooked in the Great Hall. But by 1611, the kitchen was in its own room in the east wing. A special passage called the screens passage separated the kitchen from the main living areas. The fireplace in the 1600s would have been much wider and larger than the one there today.

The Kitchen Chamber: Storage and Servants' Sleep

The Kitchen Chamber was where servants slept and food was stored. It didn't have fancy wooden walls or a ceiling. It was located near the back stairs and above the kitchen, making it easy for servants to get to. Many local houses used their kitchen chambers for storage. In 1611, this room had five large chests for storing grain and flour. Today, you can see one big chest and other food storage boxes.

Without a fireplace and with plain walls, it would have been cold in winter. However, the warmth from the kitchen below helped keep the stored food dry.

The Little Parlour Chamber: A Second-Best Bedroom

An old list from 1611 shows that the house had 17 beds of different kinds. There were simple beds for servants and grander beds for family members. Older beds were often moved to less important rooms. The Little Parlour Chamber is set up with older furniture. It shows what a "second-best" bedroom might have looked like. Reproduction tapestries hang on the walls. In the 1800s, this room was changed when stairs and a passage were added. You can still see the original wooden frame of the walls, showing how they were built with lath and plaster.

The New Parlour: A Dining Room

The New Parlour shows what a typical dining room looked like in the 1600s. Servants would place food on a side table and then serve it to the family. A special cupboard called a court cupboard held pewter dishes and plates. It could be locked, just like the small corner cupboard for spices. The lady of the house kept the spice cupboard key, as spices were very valuable back then.

The New Parlour Chamber: Guest Room or Nursemaid's Room

Wealthy homes in the 1600s often had rooms for visitors. The New Parlour Chamber is set up as a second-best guest bedroom. It might have been used by a nursemaid and the children she looked after, or by other family members. A screen near the door helped block drafts from the bed curtains. An attached dressing room or closet displays copies of old costumes. The warm colors of the walls and bed curtains match the carpet on the table. In the 1600s, fine carpets were often displayed on tables or beds because they were too valuable to walk on.

The Painted Chamber: A Mistress's Room

The Painted Chamber has copies of oak furniture. This shows how the room looked when everything was new, not dark from age and polish. The painted walls here have a simpler design than those in the Great Parlour. These paintings were found under layers of paint and are thought to be from the 1600s.

The room is shown as the mistress's chamber. A small table by the window allowed for the most light for sewing. The floorboards have been relaid in the style of the 1600s. An old record from 1609 shows that laying a floor cost five shillings and tenpence for seven days of work. The painted walls create a 3D effect, making them look like real wood grain. The "squiggles" were meant to look like walnut wood, which was becoming very popular but was expensive. So, painting was a way to imitate it. The paint was made with linseed oil, and feathers and combs were dragged over it to create the wood grain effect.

The Study: A Place for Books

The study is a small room off the gallery, above the Main Hall. An old list from 1611 shows that Robert Batt, who lived here, owned more than 60 books. This was a lot for the time, as books were expensive and few people could read. Robert studied at Oxford University and later became a church leader in Newton Tony.

Exploring Oakwell Hall's Grounds

A stone statue of a ram stands on the lawn in front of the hall. People say it used to be above the gates of Dewsbury Brewery.

Beautiful Formal Gardens

The exterior of the hall

Around the hall are formal gardens, including a herb garden on the side. Herbs and flowers were very important for housewives and cooks. They were used to make scented oils, herbal medicines, and were key ingredients in cooking. Oakwell's herb garden might be small, but it shows the many types of herbs available back then. There are over 80 kinds of herbs in the garden, and even more planted among the flowers behind the hall.

The formal gardens have been restored to look like they did in the 1690s. They used plants that were popular at that time. The garden has a parterre, which is a flat garden with paths and flowerbeds. It also has topiary (plants shaped into designs) and clipped box hedges. The patterns for the hedges were taken from furniture and plasterwork inside the hall. They even feature a special diamond shape that was common in the area. The wooden fences were made using local materials and 17th-century building methods. Even the green color of the wood is typical of that period.

The Amazing Parkland

Oakwell Hall Country Park is the most northern country park in England to be officially recognized. Within its 110 acres (0.45 square kilometers), you'll find many different natural areas. These include woodlands, streams, open fields, ponds, and paths for horses. Signs along the nature trails point out different walks around the park. Information boards tell you about the plants and animals you might see. One path from the park leads to the site of the Battle of Adwalton Moor, and another to Red House (which is now closed).

Colliery Field: A Field with a Past

Colliery Field is a grassy area in the middle of the park. It used to be where waste from Gomersal Colliery (a coal mine) was dumped. The mine closed in the 1970s. The soil here doesn't have many nutrients, so it has been replanted with meadow flowers. You can see plants like red clover, ox-eye daisy, self heal, and yellow rattle. These flowers are full of nectar, which attracts insects, especially bumblebees. This field is sometimes used for historical re-enactments of English Civil War battles, horse shows, and country fairs.

Colliery Pond: A Home for Wildlife

Colliery pond was created when the National Coal Board built a concrete road for dumping waste. The road is now hidden under the grass and acts like a dam. Water plants like water forget-me-not, bogbean, and purple loosestrife grow here. Many creatures are drawn to the pond, including toads, moorhens, smooth newts, swan mussels, and different kinds of damselfly and dragonfly.

Nova Meadow: A Damp Haven

Nova Meadow is a wet area with plants that love moisture. You might find lady's smock, common tussock grass, meadowsweet, ragged robin, and yellow flag iris. A pond was added in 2003 to attract more wildlife. The southern part of the meadow has grown wild, creating a home for birds like yellowhammers and linnets. In autumn, it attracts thrushes, fieldfares, and redwings, who come to eat the hawthorn berries.

Nova Wood: A Forest of History

Much of Nova Wood was once coppiced, meaning trees were cut back to the stump to grow new shoots. This was done to get wood for pit props for Gomersal Colliery. Now, the trees have grown back with many stems. You'll see sessile oaks and birch trees. In spring, Nova Wood is covered in a carpet of bluebells. It's also a home for birds that migrate in summer, like chiffchaff and blackcap.

Nova Beck: A Stream Through Wildflowers

Nova Beck is one of two streams that flow through Oakwell. Both flow from north to south. Nova Beck forms the western edge of Nova Wood and flows through areas filled with wildflowers. Many of the plants here, like yellow archangel, wood anememone, and wild garlic, are signs of very old woodlands. You'll also find lots of hard shield fern, red campion, and herb bennet.

Oakwell Beck: Ancient Seas and Wildlife

Oakwell Beck winds its way along the southern edge of Colliery Field. Along this stream, you can see exposed coal seams and fossilized "ripples" from ancient seas! It doesn't have as many different plants as Nova Beck. But in spring and early summer, the wooded areas are thick with wild garlic, lesser celandine, and bistort. You might also spot patches of lords and ladies in shadier spots. Ash, alder, and willow trees make up most of the tree cover here. They provide a home for tawny owls.

The Legend of the Oakwell Hall Ghost

There's a famous story about the ghost of William Batt. He was 25 years old and lived at Oakwell with his widowed mother, Elizabeth. Mrs Gaskell wrote about this story in her book Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857). Here's how she told it:

"Captain Batt was believed to be far away; his family was at Oakwell; when in the dusk on winter evening, he came stalking along the lane, through the hall and up the stairs, into his own room, where he vanished. He has been killed in duel in London that very same afternoon of December 9th 1684."

The legend says he left a bloody footprint in a bedroom. However, old records show that William Batt was at the Black Swan in Holborn, London, on December 9th, where he borrowed money. A local writer named Oliver Heywood wrote about his death twice. One entry said he died "in sport," and another said he was "slain by Mr Gream at Barne near London." William Batt was buried in Birstall on December 30, 1684.

Oakwell Hall's Connection to Charlotte Brontë

In the 1800s, Oakwell Hall was used as a girls' school. Charlotte Brontë's best friend, Ellen Nussey, lived in Birstall. Ellen likely brought Charlotte to see the school at Oakwell. Charlotte was thinking about starting a school with her sisters in Haworth. Charlotte Brontë visited the hall and was so inspired that she used it as the setting for "Fieldhead," the manor house in her novel Shirley.

Charlotte Brontë described it like this in Shirley (1849): "If Fieldhead had few other merits as a building, it might at least be termed picturesque: its irregular architecture, and the grey and mossy colouring communicated by time, gave it a just claim to this epithet. The old latticed windows, the stone porch, the walls, the roof, the chimney-stacks, were rich in crayon touches and sepia lights and shades. The trees behind were fine, bold, and spreading; the cedar on the lawn in front was grand, and the granite urns on the garden wall, the fretted arch of the gateway, were, for an artist, as the very desire of the eye."

Elizabeth Gaskell also described the house when talking about Shirley in her book The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857): "From the ‘Bloody Lane’, overshadowed by trees, you come into the field in which Oakwell Hall is situated... The enclosure in front, half court, half garden; the panelled hall, with the gallery opening into the bed-chambers running round; the barbarous peach-coloured drawing-room; the bright look-out through the garden-door upon the grassy lawns and terraces behind, where the soft-hued pigeons still love to coo and strut in the sun, – are described in Shirley. The scenery of that fiction lies close around; the real events which suggested it took place in the immediate neighbourhood."

Oakwell Hall is also a starting point for the Brontë Way. This is a 43-mile (69 km) long-distance footpath that goes around Bradford to Haworth. It then crosses the South Pennines and continues to Gawthorpe Hall in Padiham, Lancashire.

Friends of Oakwell Hall: Helping Hands

Friends of Oakwell Hall help keep the park beautiful.

The Friends of Oakwell Hall and Country Park group started in 1988. They are volunteers who help support the manor house and its 110 acres (0.45 square kilometers) of country park. The Friends work closely with the Head Ranger and staff at Oakwell. They provide help both inside and outside the hall.

Archaeology: Digging Up the Past

Archaeological digs have been done by WYAS with help from 'South Leeds Archaeology'. This is a community group from Rothwell. In May 2008, they dug up the lawn in front of the hall. They found holes where posts used to be. These were probably from a farm that was on the site but disappeared from maps between 1834 and 1844.