Built / Designed For: Joseph Scott

House & Family History: Great Barr is a late 18th century house in the Strawberry Hill Gothick style, nine bays long with ogee-headed windows. In the early 20th century Great Barr became St. Margaret's Hospital. The House was last occupied in 1978, when it was used for offices. Since that time it's suffered an arson attack, vandalism, and many years of neglect. All of the interiors were stripped after a severe outbreak of dry rot. The Lunar Society was a progressive learned society and dinner club of philosophers, intellectuals, and industrialists that was part of the Midlands Enlightenment. The society met regularly in the English Midlands between 1765 and 1813 at various members' homes, including Great Barr Hall; Soho House, Matthew Boulton's Birmingham home; and Erasmus Darwin's house in Lichfield. The group's name derived from the fact that they usually met during a full moon because the extra light made the journey home easier and safer in the days before street lights. The members, who referred to themselves as "lunarticks," counted among their fellows Matthew Boulton, Erasmus Darwin, Thomas Day, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Samuel Galton, Jr., James Keir, Joseph Priestley, William Small, Jonathan Stokes, James Watt, Josiah Wedgwood, John Whitehurst, William Withering, Joseph Wright (Wright of Derby), and possibly Benjamin Franklin. One of the society's primary missions was the abolition of the slave trade; toward this end Josiah Wedgwood produced anti-slavery Jasperware medallions, the income from which was used to finance the abolitionist movement.

Comments: In 1820 the House was described as "One of the finest and most delightful mansions in this part of the country...it stands in a beautiful vale ornamented with trees of good variety and abundance."

Garden & Outbuildings: The Park was landscaped in the late 18th century by John Nash and Humphry Repton.

Chapel & Church: A stone and brick chapel, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, still stands to the right of the House.

House Listed: Grade II

Park Listed: Grade II

Past Seat / Home of: Joseph Scott, late 18th century; Sir E.D. Scott, Bt., 19th century.

Current Ownership Type: Unknown

Primary Current Ownership Use: Ruinous

House Open to Public: No

Historic Houses Member: No