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NEWDIGATE
Richard Newdigate, who was High Steward of Sutton Coldfield 1646 to his death in 1679, was the son of John Newdigate who had in 1586 exchanged the ancient family seat at Harefield Place, Uxbridge for an estate at Arbury near Nuneaton
Richard was a highly succesful barrister whose wealth enabled him to buy back the Harefield property.
He was MP for Tamworth, briefly in 1660 Lord Chief Justice and in 1677 was created first baronet Newdigate of Arbury by Charles the Second. He married Juliana Leigh.
He is the subject of ‘ The Squire of Arbury’ published in 1990 by Eileen Goodman.
A collection of almost 4000 Newdigate family letters 1673 - 1715 is held by the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC.
His grandson Sir Roger Newdigate, the fifth baronet 1718-1806, was also a succesful barrister who exploited the coal found under the Arbury estate at Nuneaton, He greatly extended and altered Arbury Hall in Gothic style and also rebuilt Harefield House.
The Newdigate connection with Sutton was renewed with the appointment in 1925 of a descendant of Sir Richard as High Steward :- Sir Francis Alexander Newdigate was born 1862 and married Elizabeth Bagot in 1883. He was MP for Nuneaton and Knight Grand Cross Order of St Michael and St George. He changed his name to Newdigate-Newdegate in 1902. He was President of the newly formed Sutton Coldfield Conservative Club 1911 to 1917.
He was step nephew of his predecessor in the office of High Steward Lord Leigh of Stoneleigh.
He died in 1936 without a male heir. His daughter Lucia had married John Fitzroy, 3rd Viscount Daventry, in 1919 and Arbury Hall has remained the home of the Fitzroy-Newdigate family ever since
NEW HALL
New Hall is believed to date from about 1200 when a moated house was built by the Warwicks as a hunting lodge to replace the old Manor house .
The Warwicks are known to have leased out the property to Sir John Lizours in 1340 and others. After the fall of the Warwicks the estate reverted to the Crown in 1486, but the Crowns interest in Sutton Coldfield was about to cease with the creation of the independant Corporation in 1528, and the estate was acquired by William Gybbons, (no doubt his father in law Bishop Vesey was able to exercise some influence in this connection)
Large parts of the present building date from the Gybbons era including the Great Chamber of 1542.
In about 1590 the estate was sold to Henry Sacheverell of Derby and that family held the property until 1715 although they seem not to have lived in the house permanently and took little part in the life of the town.. In the 1671 valuation of the town George Sacheverell was listed as the owner of New Hall valued at £113 the third most valuable in the town He was patron to his namesake Dr Henry Sacheverell a cleric who was prosecuted for sedition in 1710. When George died in 1715 his great nephew Charles Sacheverell Chadwick inherited the estate and the Chadwicks remained in ownership until 1882. The 1824 enclosure of the common land of Sutton benefited the estate by some 50 acres.
In 1841 the house was leased out to William Jacot ‘ of foreign parts’, in 1851 it was occupied by Hugo Masevyn Chadwick and in 1861 by John de Hely Chadwick and his family and eleven servants.
John de Hely Chadwick carried out extensive extensions and modernisations in the 1870s but in 1882 the house was on the market for sale together with two farms and over 400 acres.
The Healey family operated a school from the Hall from 1885 to 1903. The first principal FWW Howell died in 1891 and J Everard Healey replaced him. In 1903
Walter Wilkinson bought the property and in 1923 it was acquired by Alfred Ernest Owen of Rubery Owen and became the family home. The Owen family were prominent in the life of the town until the 1970s.
In 1988 the Hall was converted to a hotel.
SEE OWEN