WHEN I first registered pitchford.com as a domain name I never guessed the interest I'd provoke from Pitchfords around the world. For the first six months the emails came in thick and fast and, seven years on, I still get a friendly constant trickle of Pitchford-related communications.

Once my correspondents' delight of finding someone with the same name had subsided (hello, Mr Pitchford #67 *sigh*), you all wanted to know where the name came from. After all, you are nearly all American and I'm English, so I was reasonably expected to have a grasp of my roots. So for the benefit of all of us, I did some digging, I even visited Pitchford, and I came up with this. So, ahem, here our history begins, and nearly all of it is true...

Probably the village’s greatest claim to fame is the 16th century half-timbered mansion which stands next to the (older) Church of St Michael and All Angels, and is regarded as one of the finest of its type in Britain.

In 1832 Princess Victoria - better known as the queen of the same name, when she got older - visited the hall with her mother. Her diary describes her first impressions: "A curious looking but very comfortable house. It is striped black and white, and in the shape of a cottage." (A big cottage.) During the Second World War, in June 1940, when a German invasion of Britain was a very real possibility, Pitchford was one of the three houses selected as a safe refuge for the King and Queen and the young princesses. So, not your average pad, as you can see above.

The building stands on the site of the original medieval manor (our manor, part of whose structure has been incorporated into the current building). It has a priest’s hole (built for Catholic priests to hide from red hot iron-toting Protestants) and a Dali-esque 17th century treehouse, built in the same style as the hall, still in excellent condition, and perched on a broad-leaved lime tree which in turn leans on giant wooden crutches.

Ralph & Co
The church on the other hand was founded and built by another Ralph de Pitchford (any Ralphs out there?) in 1220 AD and is built in the Early English style of Architecture, apparently. The sanctuary’s 13th century effigy of Sir John de Pitchford, Ralph’s son, clad as a crusader, and 7ft 1in long including the hound at his feet, is carved from a single block of oak. Like all good English churches, this one needs a new roof, and my spies tell me that English Heritage are keen to help pay towards it - some guilt on their part allegedly but... I'm getting ahead of myself.

A wool trader bought the Pitchford estate in 1473 (someone fill me in on what happened with the bishopric please) and it has remained in the same family until this decade. In more recent years they became a Lloyds "name" (ie one of the wealthy underwriters of the famous London insurance firm - traditionally regarded as a very safe and lucrative bet) but in 1993 the company decided to call in its debts. Ouch. And so after 500 years Pitchford Hall was on the market again.

Pitchford goes abroad
The next year the media spotlight briefly centred on Pitchford Hall as the government and its conservation department, English Heritage (the connection's coming up in a moment), decided whether or not to buy the estate for the nation. It was eventually deemed as of insufficient worth (Tories - what do they know?) and so was sold on the open market.

Although we know that he's foreign, the identity of the new owner is a mystery. What I can say is that when I visited in October 1996 the hall bore a sign declaring the estate the property of Pitchford Hall Ltd - and it is now a stud farm. Several white Arabian horses were wandering around the fields at the front of the hall. The new guy wasn’t in (and apparently has only been in once) and my spies tell me he is American.

The new ownership is probably good for Pitchford Hall. Although, sadly, many of the estate’s antiques and paintings were lost, sold separately, and the estate went for under a million pounds (ie US$1,700,000), the owner had to show up front something in the order of six million for the hall’s preservation. So the listed buildings people will hopefully make sure that maintenance and repairs are carried out.

If you want to visit, it's not open to the public but the church is a parish church and therefore is not private property. The best policy, when and if you get to the end of the tree-lined avenue, is to knock on the lodge door, tell them you're a Pitchford (they'll sigh), and ask if you can just see the church (from which you get a close-up view of the hall). They'll probably say yes but will also tell you you must go no further or...or... well, if you survive the experience, email me and let me know what you saw.

Most of the above is pinched directly from research by Revd D.H.S. Cranage and W. Watkins-Pitchford. I think they're both dead but either way, thanks to both. Also thanks to Douglas Pitchford for details of Ralph Venator and to John, who knows who he is (thankfully).