Great Barr Hall is an 18th-century mansion situated in the Great Barr district of Pheasey, historically in Staffordshire and now part of Walsall, West Midlands, England. It has associations with the Lunar Society and is a Grade II listed building.
Outside the chapel are the burial plots of several of Lady Bateman Scott's pets, inscribed with poems she wrote for them.
Financial problems led the Scott Family (who gave their name to the nearby Scott Arms pub and shopping centre), to lease out the hall from about 1788 to Samuel Galton, and for some years the Hall became a venue for meetings of the Lunar Society. It is said to be the 'favourite place of meeting' of this illustrious body. In 1999, stone memorials to the Lunar Society, the "Moonstones", were erected at the nearby Asda supermarket.
In 1791, Sir Francis Scott, 3rd Baronet, inherited the manor of Great Barr from his maternal uncle Thomas Hoo and was able to return to live in the house on the expiry of the lease. He died in 1863. His widow Mildred lived on in the Hall until her death in 1909.
After the Scotts
In 1911, the estate was purchased by a local hospital board and, in 1918, became The Great Barr Park Colony [https://www.workhouses.org.uk/WalsallJC/] for 'mental defectives, in 1948 it became St Margaret's Mental Hospital. Many detached hospital buildings were erected near the hall, and in the 1980s the grounds became a nature reserve, managed by the Staffordshire Nature Conservation Trust but the hall itself was abandoned in 1978 and, despite its 1971 Grade II* listing, was left to decay.
This also included a special school, The Queslett School, which closed in December 1988.
The hall and chapel, both in derelict state, were used in filming the third episode of season 7 of Dalziel and Pascoe, first screened in October 2002.
Many years passed during which discussions and negotiations for the protection of the hall came to nothing. In 2006, Bovis Homes purchased the 40 hectare estate and obtained planning permission for the redevelopment of the site. Nether Hall Park a new residential housing development, occupying a substantial part of the estate, was completed in the 2010s.
In May 2011 the hall, still in ruins, was put up for sale for £2.2 million, by the Manor Building Preservation Trust, They have commissioned Lapworth Architects to consult with the public and investigate potential new uses for the hall. Three survive: