Birmingham's Hidden Treasures: Hay Hall Traditional Cache
Hidden : 9/6/2010
Difficulty:
1 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: other (other)

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Geocache Description:


THIS IS A BUSY LOCATION SO HERE ARE TWO GIVEAWAY HINTS TO MINIMISE SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY: (1) THE PHOTO IN THE LISTING BELOW IS TAKEN FROM GZ (2) MAGNETIC NANO ON LOWER CROSSBAR BY BASE OF FIRST FENCEPOST (SET INTO GROUND) TO LEFT OF GATE. NOT THE GATEPOST.



If you just want to cache and dash you need read no further. But I would encourage you to read on before you visit to find out more about this mediaeval anomaly nestling in among a swathe of industrial units.

This cache adds to the Birmingham Hidden Treasures series, originally started by butttercup. Hay Hall is the only remnant of mediaeval architecture still extant in the Hay Mills area of Birmingham. How it came to survive the industrialisation of Tyseley is something of a mystery, although former owners T.I.Reynolds Ltd must claim a lot of the credit.

Hay Hall was originally a moated sub-manor house of Yardley near the confluence of Sparkbrook and the River Cole. It was probably built by Robert de la Hay c1300. Hay Hall came into the Este family 1423 when Marion, last of the de la Hays, married Thomas Este, governor of Kenilworth Castle. They are commemorated in St. Edburgha's Church at Yardley by a wall sculpture depicting Thomas and Marian. Thomas Este was a gentleman at the courts of King Henry V and Henry VI and was a renowned soldier who fought in the French wars, including at Agincourt. The 15th-century Hall was made into an H-shape in Tudor times and the front (originally the rear) rebuilt in Georgian neo-classical style after a fire c1810. Hay Hall was restored in 1948 and put to its present use as offices originally for Reynolds Tubes, now Air Link Systems.

The history of the immediate area is also fascinating. The district takes its full name from Hay Mill which stood on the River Cole near James Road/ Mill Road. The mill belonged to the occupants of Hay Hall and ground corn from at least 1495. The mill converted to blade grinding (probably during the Civil War) and continued in this vein until about 1830 when James Horsfall, a wire drawer of Digbeth, moved here. He had the old mill buildings demolished and rebuilt a larger mill with a larger mill pool some 100m north of the old site. In 1853, Horsfall patented a process of heat treatment which produced a wire with twice the tensile strength of conventional wire. That same year he merged his company with that of Joseph Webster of Penns Mill, Sutton Coldfield whose speciality was piano wire, for which he had a major export market in Europe. Subsequently the company virtually monopolised the market in piano wire. Webster & Horsfall's high-tensile wire also was used for making needles, fishhooks and umbrella frames and many other items.

Significantly, Webster & Horsfall’s firm also made the wire for the first successful transatlantic telegraph cable laid by Great Eastern in 1866. The project used 30,000 miles of wire weighing 1600 tons which was made by 250 workers in less than a year. It was the company's largest order and remained so for another 100 years.

In 1917, the Patented Butted Tube Company headed by Mr A.M.Reynolds purchased Hay Hall and 13 acres of land for £5,000. New tube works were built, but fortunately Hay Hall was saved from demolition. In 1921, Patented Butted Tube Company became Reynolds Tubes Ltd. In 1929, Tube Investments took over the company and it would appear that they also employed the last person to actually reside at Hay Hall this was a Mrs Shelley who was employed as a housekeeper and was known to be living in the Hall in 1939.

Hay Hall was Grade II listed in 1952.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Anab ba ybjre pebffone ol onfr bs svefg sraprcbfg (frg vagb tebhaq) gb yrsg bs tngr. Abg gur tngrcbfg vgfrys.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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