Sodington Hall
Coordinates: 52°20′10″N 2°27′07″W / 52.336°N 2.452°W
Sodington Hall is an early 19th-century country house near Mamble in Worcestershire, England. The Grade II listed building was described by Nikolaus Pevsner as "neat and modest" and by James Lees-Milne in the Shell Worcestershire Guide as a "red brick dolls house".
It sits on the site of a Schedule A monument with a Grade II listed bridge in the grounds surrounded by a moat and stands elevated and secluded yet with spectacular far reaching views over border countryside to the Welsh mountains.
The site is believed to date back to a Roman fortification at around AD 418. The earliest modern records of Sodington describe it as a fortified house with four drawbridges over its moat, held by Sir Richard de Sodington in the mid 13th Century, when it passed by marriage to the Blounts – a Norman dynasty renowned for their loyalty to the Crown and their robust attitude towards negotiations with the Welsh.
For nearly 400 years, Sodington remained the principal seat of one of England’s most prominent families – Sir Walter Blount even appears as a leading character in Shakespeare’s Henry IV. Then, in approximately 1646, it was burnt by Parliamentary forces, in reprisal for the then Sir Walter Blount’s refusal to grant them access to his weapons forge. Alternative accommodation was provided for Sir Walter in the Tower of London. The Sodington estates were confiscated by Parliament in 1652 only to be returned intact upon the Restoration. Local legend holds that the Yew tree close to the house was planted in 1662 to commemorate the visit of Charles II to Sodington. The present house was built in 1806 – 1807 and it was while excavating its foundations that the evidence of Roman settlement was discovered in the form of a Roman pavement and a beautifully engineered water pipe of interlocking ceramic sections leading from the spring at Clows Top. Sodington Hall remained a seat of the Blount family until 1958, when it was sold to Richard Jensen, the manufacturer of the Jensen Interceptor motor car at West Bromwich. The original moat surrounds the house today, crossed by listed Late Georgian bridges. The site within the moat is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
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