Express & Star

WATCH: Take a look around the grounds of the Black Country's mansions

They say birds have the best views - and these pictures showing aerial shots of three of our best-loved historic homes illustrate the point.

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The vast grounds of Himley Hall, where King Charles 1 camped during the Civil War, almost dwarf the current 18th-century manor house when seen from the air.

The great Palladian mansion, near Dudley, replaced the original moated medieval manor house demolished by John Ward, Lord of Dudley. His son, also John, brought in Capability Brown to redesign the180 acres of parkland, including the great lake.

For four centuries it served as a secondary home to the Lords of Dudley and their knights before the family left for Worcestershire in the 1830s, reportedly because it was too close to the Black Country. Today the gardens host large public events such as car shows and plant fairs.

The aerial view of Wightwick Manor in Wolverhampton throws the spotlight on the building's magnificent barley-twist chimney stacks and extensive red tiled roof.

Surrounding the house is a beautiful Edwardian-style garden full of textures and colours throughout the year. Designed by Thomas Mawson, the garden has retained clear lines of yew hedges, bold planting and expansive lawns.

The brick and timber-framed Victorian manor, built by the Mander family in the late 19th century, is one of only a few surviving examples of a house built and furnished under the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement. In 1937 Geoffrey Mander MP persuaded the National Trust to take it on even though it was just 50 years old.

Nearer to the city centre is Bantock House, a museum of Edwardian life and local history, in 48 acres of parkland off Finchfield Road. It is named after Alderman Baldwin and Kitty Bantock who once lived there. The Grade II listed house, built in the 1730s, was given to the people of Wolverhampton in 1938.

Bantock House in Wolverhampton, picture: Stone's Throw Media

Baldwin's father, successful railway and canal agent Thomas Bantock was the first to move into the property, then called New Merridale Farm, in 1864. Both father and son became mayors of Wolverhampton.

Having been a base for the local Home Guard during the Second World War, come peacetime, Wolverhampton Corporation turned the property into a museum, and the newly named Bantock House Museum opened in 1948.

A keen gardener, Baldwin transformed the farmyard into the charming sunken Dutch Garden and planted the Rose Garden we can see from the air, as well as creating the colourful flower borders and Woodland Garden, which now forms part of the park's nature trail.

The images were taken by Stone's Throw Media based at Wolverhampton Science Park.

http://www.stmedia.co.uk/

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