Hindlip Hall

Hindlip Hall
stately home
the hall today
Country	England
Region	Midlands
District	Worcestershire
Founded	1575 (rebuilt. c. 1820)
Owner	in the care of the West Mercia Police
Visitation	adjacent church is accessible to the public
Website: https://www.westmercia.police.uk/article/4406/Hindlip-Hall-Police-Headquarters

Hindlip Hall is in Worcestershire. The first major hall was built before 1575. It played a significant role in both the Babington and the Gunpowder plots (where it hid four people in priest holes, who were eventually executed). It was Humphrey Littleton who told the authorities that Edward Oldcorne was hiding here after he had been heard saying Mass at Hindlip Hall. Four people were executed and the owner at that time barely escaped execution himself due to the intercession of Lord Monteagle. Afterwards it was owned by a poet and was for a while a girls' school before being rebuilt by Lord Southwell in 1820. The Hall was designated as a potential home for the war cabinet in 1940. It is now home to the West Mercia Police headquarters.

The house was originally built before 1575 to replace an earlier timber framed manor house in a brick construction with towers and large windows, by John Abington, an official in the court of Elizabeth I. John, his wife Catherine, and his three children Edward, Thomas and Dorothy were all Catholic Recusants. After their father's death in 1582, Sir Edward and Sir Thomas were involved in the Babington plot which hoped to put a Catholic queen on the throne. Edward was beheaded but Thomas was shown mercy due to his youth.

After imprisonment, Thomas and his wife, Mary, retired to Hindlip Hall, which they had adapted as a refuge with priest holes constructed for Catholic priests including some built by Nicholas Owen. Mary was the sister-in-law of Lord Monteagle.

...
Wikipedia