Rushall Hall was a fortified house complete with gatehouse and stone walls. It is situated just of the Mellish Road in Walsall.
Owned by the Leigh family at the start of the English Civil War, it passed between Royalist and Parliamentary hands throughout the war. In 1643, King Charles' nephew Prince Rupert defeated a small garrison of Parliamentarian soldiers. Edward Leigh was away with the army, so the resistance was put up by his wife and a small band of soldiers.
In 1644, the occupying Royalists were removed following a Parliamentarian siege. However, the King did not give up his efforts to control the hall and attempted to bribe the Parliamentarian garrison to surrender.
Today, what remains of the hall is privately owned, and sits between a church and local nature reserve, Park Lime Pitts - itself an area that is full of history with quarrying possibly going back as far as the Romans.
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