Earlier Houses: The current house replaced the Tudor home of the Sothebys, which itself replaced a medieval monastery.

House & Family History: The Willoughbys were a notable Nottinghamshire family in the Middle Ages. In 1588, having increased the family fortune through coal mining, they built Wollaton Hall, now in the center of Nottingham, and lived there and at Middleton Hall, a family estate in Warwickshire. The ground that Birdsall House now occupies was a monastic site until the Dissolution of the Monasteries, circa 1540. The Sotheby family, who already owned land in nearby Pocklington, acquired the land from the Church of England and built a small Tudor house on the site (the original five bays and central door of this house forms the Long Hall of the current Birdsall House). In 1719 Thomas Willoughby, a younger son of the 1st Lord Middleton and MP for Cambridge, was traveling over the Yorkshire Wolds on his way from Nottingham to Hull when he lost his way in a snowstorm. He followed a glow he saw in the distance, which, of course, was Birdsall House, where the Sothebys gave Thomas shelter for the night and introduced him to their daughter and only child, Elizabeth. Thomas and Elizabeth fell in love and married in 1719, which was the start of the Willoughby family at Birdsall. In 1729 Thomas and Elizabeth inherited Birdsall from her parents and set about remodeling the House, converting the original Tudor house into a more stylish Georgian stone building. In 1775 a new wing was added to the House by Henry, Thomas and Elizabeth's son. This new Southwest Wing incorporated new State Rooms, the Oval Room, and the Ballroom, all added between 1790 and 1800. Henry became the 5th Lord Middleton, inheriting the title through a cousin who had no children; with the title came Wollaton Hall and Middleton Hall, thus uniting the three family estates under single ownership. The House as seen today is the result of an extensive and far-reaching rebuilding carried out in 1873 for the 8th Lord Middleton to the designs of Anthony Salvin. The architect took an incongruous house of many periods and unified it into a harmonious whole, most dramatically with his new West Façade of 19 bays (which provided a mate to the Georgian wing), and gave the House, when viewed from across the lake, the appearance of a magnificent palace. Queen Mary visited Birdsall in the 1930s. (We are very grateful to Lord Middleton and the Willoughby family for contributing the majority of this history of Birdsall House).

Collections: Birdsall boasts an exceptionally fine collection of paintings, with works by Reynolds, Romney, Batoni, and Winterhalter. The collection is particularly rich in topographical paintings by Jan Siberechts, some showing the Willoughby family's ancestral Nottinghamshire seat of Wollaton Hall (sold in 1924; many objects from Wollaton came to Birdsall after the family sold their Nottingham house). Possibly the most important Siberechts at Birdsall is the 1695 "Horsemen Crossing a Ford, With Wollaton Hall in the Distance." There is also an unbroken line of family portraits from 1580 and a notable collection of English silver. To top it all off, there are important pieces of furniture by Gillows and Chippendale, as well as unusual objects like the fine Indo-Portuguese mother-of-pearl inlaid cabinet on an English mahogany stand attributed to William Vile.

Garden & Outbuildings: The Grade II-listed stables are extant.

House Listed: Grade II*

Park Listed: Not Listed

Current Seat / Home of: Michael Charles James Willoughby, 13th Baron Middleton; Willoughby family here since since 1729.

Past Seat / Home of: Sotheby family, 16th century until 1729.

Current Ownership Type: Individual / Family Trust

Primary Current Ownership Use: Private Home

Ownership Details: House is open by appointment for groups and is available to book for weddings.

House Open to Public: By Appointment

Phone: 01944-316-000

Website: https://birdsallestates.co.uk/

Historic Houses Member: No