Moat House redirects here. For the listed building in Sutton Coldfield

Sutton Coldfield

Sutton Coldfield is a suburb of Birmingham, in the West Midlands of England. Sutton is located about from central Birmingham but has borders with Erdington and Kingstanding. Sutton is in the northeast of Birmingham, with a population of 105,000 recorded in the 2001 census...

, see Moat House, Sutton Coldfield

Moat House, Sutton Coldfield

Moat House is a Grade II* listed building situated in Lichfield Road, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands. It is part of the Anchorage Road conservation area....

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The Moat House is a Grade II* historic building located in what were once the grounds of Tamworth Castle

Tamworth Castle

Tamworth Castle, a Grade I listed building, is a Norman castle, located next to the River Tame, in the town of Tamworth in Staffordshire, England....

 in Staffordshire

Staffordshire

Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. A Gazebo nearby is a Grade II listed building.

Currently the Moat House is a family restaurant.

A rare family of 18 Black Swans

Black Swan

The Black Swan is a large waterbird, a species of swan, which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. The species was hunted to extinction in New Zealand, but later reintroduced. Within Australia they are nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent upon climatic...

 live around the grounds.

History

Built in 1572 by William Comberford as a family home, it sits on the banks of the River Tame

River Tame, West Midlands

The River Tame is the main river of the West Midlands, and the most important tributary of the River Trent. The Tame is about 40 km from source at Oldbury to its confluence with the Trent near Alrewas, but the main river length of the entire catchment, i.e...

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Charles I

Charles I of England

Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

 stayed in the property in August 1619.

In 1815 the Moat House became a lunatic asylum

Psychiatric hospital

Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...

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Prior to its current ownership the property was a Berni Inn

Berni Inn

Founded in 1955, Berni Inn was the name of a chain of British restaurants established by brothers Frank and Aldo Berni, who were Welsh Italians. The Berni Inn logo consisted of red block lettering, with elongated leading lines on the R and N, throughout the chain's duration...

, and before that a Schooner Inn.

Ghosts

It is purported that walking the second floor corridors is the ghost

Ghost

In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...

of a young girl named Emily. It is believed she was locked in the tower by her father and died in a fire that originated from a burning candle.