New Berry Hall - Modern Times

Modern Times

After being sold at auction in 1957, 'New' Berry Hall sat empty while its new owners tried to get planning permission to convert the Hall into a hotel. The wrangling over planning permissions was still ongoing in 1959 when a reporter from the Solihull News visited the grounds after reports received from concerned locals. The reporter found that the once immaculately manicured grounds were now very overgrown; but the owners assured him that the interior of the hall was being maintained. Over the next 20 years the once magnificent Hall fell into disrepair and ultimately dereliction, with several planning applications being refused pursuant to restrictions on the development of green belt land and to the listing of the property on Solihull's local list of historic buildings. In many ways the council's attempts at protecting the site ultimately did the most damage to the future of the Hall. It was demolished on the instruction of Solihull Council on safety grounds in the early 1990s, having been severely vandalised and stripped out.

All that remains of the New Berry Hall today are several large mounds formed by the vast piles of handmade bricks that have been reclaimed by the plants which were once part of the meticulously maintained grounds. The forest which once surrounded the property has now fully reclaimed the site of the main Hall.

Both lodges also survive today. The South Lodge on Marsh Lane is Grade II listed. The North Lodge, on Hampton Lane, which had stood boarded up and vandalised for many years, sold at auction in June 2006 for £550,000 in derelict condition and is now fully renovated.

The Gillott family was commemorated in the naming of Gillott Close on an estate of new properties adjacent to the South Lodge on Marsh Lane.