Visit Tixall Gatehouse, Staffordshire

Many people drive past Tixall Gatehouse in Staffordshire not knowing what it is and the historic tales it can tell.

The History of Tixall Hall and Gatehouse

The Aston family from Haywood acquired the Tixall estate through marriage. Tixall Gatehouse was built in 1580 by Sir Walter Aston (1529-1589) who was a prominent Staffordshire protestant. The gatehouse was built to accompany Tixall hall which had been built by is father, Sir Edward Aston who built Tixall Hall in 1555. In 1598 Sampson Erdeswick described the gatehouse as "one of the fairest pieces of work made of late times, that I have seen in all these countries." The Gatehouse  is shown in the front of the Hall in Robert Plot's Natural History of Staffordshire of 1686.

A Royal Prisoner

In August, six years after the gatehouse was built Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned in Tixall Gatehouse while her quarters at Chartley were being searched for incriminating evidence for treachery. She was then taken to London to meet her fate.
In 1720 the estate passed to the Clifford family, who rebuilt the hall in 1785 using local stone. In about 1835 the Cliffords sold Tixall to the Earl Talbot of Ingestre.

Tixall Gatehouse Today

There are strong similarities with Tixall Gatehouse to that of the Hunting Lodge at Chatsworth in Derbyshire.Tixall Hall was demolished in 1926, the stone was reused in the building of St. John's Church, Stafford. The stables and gate-house remain; today the gate-house can be hired as a holiday home.

Tixall Gatehouse Preserved in Literature

A print of Tixall Hall and Gatehouse was commissioned by Dr. Robert Plot for his book 'Natural History of Staffordshire', published in 1686. Tixall Gatehousel is mentioned in 'A Traveller in Time' by Alison Uttley. I read this as a child many many years ago and was completely captivated by the story. It's about a child staying in an historic house with a relative finds herself slipping through time back to when another family lived there some 400 years previously. The book vividly describes the lives of both families in the two different centuries with the main character involved in both. It's a really believable plot involving Mary Queen of Scots which slowly unravels as the protagonist slips from present to past and back again. It's beautifully written and even though it's marketing as a children's book adults will certainly enjoy it too.