The stabling consisted of a coach house and also a smaller coach house, stabling for twelve horses, harness room, mews room, and open trap shed and corn store.In 1840 William Charles Alston purchased the Elmdon Estate at an auction sale at Dees Royal Hotel, Birmingham. The 1851 census of Elmdon shows William Charles Alston, his wife Elizabeth Ann, and five children living at the Hall. There was also a Coachman, Gardener, Tutor, Housekeeper, Head Nurse, Lady’s maid and seven House servants.

The Walled Garden

The 2.7 acres of walled garden were able to supply the Hall with fresh vegetables, fruit and flowers throughout the year. The rectangular shape with the long north and south facing walls was considered ideal for maximum sunshine and warmth, with plantations of trees arranged as windbreaks. These were outside the north, north-west and north-east sides of the garden walls which are 12 feet high. The head and under gardeners had cottages close by at Elmdon Farm with as many as 20 men and boys working in the kitchen and pleasure gardens.

The walled garden was intersected by wide grass paths with neat box hedges, and after the removal of the glass tax in 1845, extensive greenhouses and cold frames. Around the walls espalier and fan shaped apple trees with the more tender fruits such as nectarines and apricots occupying the south facing walls. The stables at Elmdon Farm provided a ready supply of horse manure.

The Rectory

This was the Rectory, built in 1803 by Isaac Spooner. His son William was the first occupant and he remained Rector for 54 years. He was the Archdeacon of Coventry and also held two other livings. His seventh child Catherine married A.C.Tait Headmaster of Rugby School, later to become the Archbishop of Canterbury. Living in the Rectory at the time of the 1851 census of Elmdon were nine members of the Spooner family, together with nine servants – a Butler, Housekeeper, Lady’s Maid, House maid, two servants and three nurses.

In 1948 the building was sold and became private residences with a covenant that the title "Rectory" would not be used in the name for the building.

Elmdon Parish Church

The existence of a Church in the parish is first recorded in the Calendar of Close Rolls for 1297 – the ‘Church of Elmdone’ had had ‘Edmund de Whitaker’ as its Parson. The Manor remained in the hands of various members of the ‘de Whitaker’ family until the mid 16th century. The Manor was then passed through several other hands until around 1760 it was sold to Abraham Spooner. It is in the period from Spooner onwards that Elmdon became a Manor with history and a great deal of interest.

The Spooner Family

The Spooner family were responsible for the buildings we see today at Elmdon – some still standing and used, some just outlines on the ground. Abraham Spooner built the Present Church on the site of an old Saxon Church just before his death in 1788. Spooner, although 90 years of age, oversaw the destruction of the old church because " The Ancient Edifice is become of late so very weak and dilapidated". (This may have been the reason that Abraham and Anne Spooner traveled 7 miles to St.Martin’s, Birmingham to have each of their seven children christened, rather than walk the short distance to the old Elmdon Church.) The new church was built upon the same site, largely using the old foundations and was completed in 1782.

The estate of Elmdon passed to his son, Isaac Spooner, who rebuilt Elmdon Hall and the Rectory. On his death the estate passed to his son, Abraham Spooner Lillingston who died tragically after a tree fell on him outside Whar Hall Farm in 1834. The estate was sold in 1840 to the Alston family and remained in its possession until 1920 when a large part of the estate was sold. In 1930 the rest of the estate was auctioned off to various parties, and the glory days of Elmdon had ended. The old parkland was ploughed up for agriculture and many fine trees felled.

In 1944 the Hall and land was sold to Solihull Urban District Council. The Hall was used for housing the Home Guard during the war years, and then the building was left empty. The main staircase rotted and collapsed due to the roof letting in water as the lead had been stripped. The building became a gaunt and eerie relict of its glorious days gone by. The broken windows, unkempt lawns and cost of refurbishment had given the Hall its death sentence, and it was demolished in 1956.

William Wilberforce (1759-1833)

The most prominent British politician to work for the abolition of slavery in the late 18th and early 19th centuries was William Wilberforce. The motivation for his efforts came from his conversion to evangelical Christianity in 1785.

Wilberforce was born in Hull in Yorkshire, England, on Aug. 24, 1759. He attended St. John's College, Cambridge. His family's wealth aided him in becoming a Member of Parliament in 1780, and he remained there until 1825.

On April 30, 1797, Wilberforce married Barbara Spooner, daughter of Isaac Spooner of Elmdon Hall Estate, Warwickshire.

Wilberforce's Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was founded in 1787, and he repeatedly exposed the horrors of slavery to his fellow members of Parliament. He achieved his first success on March 25, 1807, when a bill to abolish the slave trade became law. This law, however, did not free those who were already slaves.

His next step was to work for the freeing of the remaining slaves in the British West Indies. His Anti-Slavery Society was founded in 1823. Wilberforce retired from Parliament in 1825 and turned over leadership of the abolition movement to Sir Thomas F. Buxton. Wilberforce died on July 29, 1833. One month later the Slavery Abolition Act was passed.