A very captivating and historic tale of Agecroft Hall awaits visitors on a nicely routed guided tour. Agecroft Hall and Gardens is located in Windsor Farms near the downtown area of Virginia’s State Capital of Richmond.
The Tudor manor house was built approximately 500 years ago along the Irwell River in Lancashire, England, and was the home of the distinguished Langley and Dauntesey families. The first mention of Agecroft Hall was in 1376 as Achecroft, because it was near a wild celery (ache) field (croft). In 1395, Robert Langley inherited Agecroft and you can see his initials in the manor’s many windows. Also, the Langley Family Shield was a unique “Cockatraice” which was a rooster with dragon wings and tail. This shield is also visible in many windows. One legend has it that the famous tale of “Babes in the Woods” took place at Agecroft Hall.
In 1823, heirs of Agecroft sold the coal mineral rights under the property which set it on a path to ruin. The enormous manor house fell into disrepair, reportedly from the soot and smog of the nearby industrial coal mining and train traffic operations. It was put up for auction in 1925, and purchased for $19,000 by Thomas Williams, Jr. from Richmond, Virginia, whose dream was to have an English manor. A model of the original manor as it was in Lancashire is located in an exhibition room and part of the self-guided tour.
Williams then had the manor disassembled and the salvageable parts crated and shipped across the Atlantic to Richmond where it was reassembled. The cost of disassembling, transport and reassembling was a staggering $250,000 back then. It was hard to believe that not a single window was broken during the relocation. A year after the work was completed, Mr. Williams died. His will stipulated that upon his widow’s death the manor would become a museum, which subsequently opened in 1969.
Agecroft days and hours of operation are displayed on a sign at the front of the property. I arrived 30 minutes before opening and was politely confronted by a security guard who requested that I remain in the parking area until opening time. Admission and guided tour is $10, seniors $9, and fulltime students $6 (children and active military members are free). The guided tour starts with a 10-minute video that sets the stage for the rest of the tour. The street address of Agecroft is 4305 Sulgrave Road. Unfortunately, photography is prohibited inside the manor, but permitted outside and in the couple of small exhibition rooms. A few interior photos are available on their website at https://www.agecrofthall.org/photo-gallery-1 and many more are on Yelp at https://www.yelp.com/biz_photo…ecroft-hall-richmond
The Elizabethan Garden at Agecroft (actually a collection of gardens) was designed by noted architect Charles Gillette based on the pond garden of England’s Hampton Court Palace. Exotic plants and medicinal herbs flourish in this well cared for garden.
Inside the manor, the authentic décor pieces are from 1485 to 1660 including a few nicely preserved lantern clocks from 1610 that still operate and which only had an hour hand back then (called lantern clocks because they were shaped like lanterns). Paintings, tapestries, suits of armor and other items all seem to have a unique story well explained by the guide. One of the treasures is the John of Gaunt window in the Exhibition Room that was in the original Agecroft Hall library, but later moved to another English estate. John of Gaunt had connections with the Langley family and when this window was located and shipped to Richmond in 1979, 50 panes arrived cracked or broken, unlike the 1920’s massive shipment. John of Gaunt was the son of King Edward III and the younger brother of the infamous “Black Prince”, Edward of Woodstock.
The rounded oriel window is supposedly the oldest in the house and I tried to capture a number of the different architectural nuances on the facades. During times of prosperity, large timbers and good metals were used for construction and during hard times, thinner timbers and poorer grade metals were used. It the early times of Agecroft Hall, when children and close relatives were married, they moved in with the folks and as the family expanded, so did Agecroft Hall with building additions. I believe the Latin motto on the ironwork in one of the images is Virtus Sola Invicta meaning “virtue alone is invincible”.
Since I had arrived too early for the museum opening, I wandered to the adjacent property and discovered another regal mansion and Virginia landmark called the Virginia House. It is only open by appointment and used primarily for weddings and other events. I later discovered that this manor, like Agecroft Hall next door, was shipped over from England. The disassembled Warwick Priory founded in 1109 in Warwickshire England was auctioned off in a “demolition sale” and purchase by an American diplomat for £3,500 in 1925. This initiated a furor in England since the American owner ordered the manor to be demolished so the good pieces could be salvaged and sent to Richmond. The cost at the time to rebuild this manor from those pieces cost over $200,000, like its neighbor.
A remarkable story!