Pillaton Hall Gatehouse

Pillaton Hall Gatehouse is a 15th century gatehouse and all that remains standing of medieval Pillaton Hall, near Penkridge, Staffordshire. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade II* listed building.

The Littleton family, later Littleton Baronets, acquired the Pillaton estate as a result of the 15th century marriage of Richard Littleton to Alice Winesbury, heiress of Pillaton Hall.

The moated manor, built around a quadrilateral courtyard, comprising residential quarters and a Great Hall to the south, and a kitchen range to the west, was approached via the Gatehouse on the south. The Gatehouse, of two storeys rises to three in the centre, raised by four circular domed angle turrets. Attached to the Gatehouse to the east is the chapel formerly dedicated to Saint Modwen.

The Littletons abandoned the Hall as a residence in the mid 18th century and built a new mansion, Teddesley Hall (demolished in 1954) nearby. The neglected old Hall was ruinous by 1799 but the Gatehouse and Chapel survived and were restored in the 1880s by Lord Hatherton

References

* [http://homepage.mac.com/philipdavis/English%20sites/3336.html The Gatehouse Gazetteer]
* [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=53403 "A History of the County of Staffordshire Volume 5" (1959) pp 103-126 from British History Online]
* [http://www.search.staffspasttrack.org.uk/engine/search/default_hndlr.asp Photographs at Staffordshire Past-Track]
* [http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/Details/Default.aspx?id=271726&mode=quick Images of England:Pillaton Old Hall]