Report - CTP Gills Ltd./Packington Hall, Lichfield January 2017

[mookster]

I figured I'd post up a few of my favourite locations from my few years of backlog and this is a place I am amazed hasn't had more traffic over the years. I explored this place at the beginning of this year, after wondering for an age whether or not it was still around as nobody seemed to have visited it for a number of years and there was nothing I could find online with a definitive answer.

It's a peculiar melding of a country manor house and a fairly bland network of large factory buildings attached to the rear, a residential/industrial combination I've only ever seen one other time at the now demolished Frith Park in Surrey

Packington Hall in Staffordshire, England was a country mansion designed by architect James Wyatt in the 18th century. Originally built for the Babington family, it became the home of the Levett family for many generations. The Levetts had ties to Whittington, Staffordshire and nearby Hopwas for many years.

Packington Hall is located approximately two miles from Lichfield, and was likely built for Zachary Babington whose daughter Mary Babington married Theophilus Levett, town clerk of Lichfield. From Theophilus Levett the home passed to a succession of family members, including MP John Levett, the Rev. Thomas Levett, who was the vicar of Whittington, and Robert Thomas Kennedy Levett, DL, JP.

The last member of the Levett family to reside at Packington Hall was Rev. Thomas Prinsep Levett, son of Col. Robert Thomas Kennedy Levett, and graduate of Clare College, Cambridge, and a longserving clergyman at Richmond, North Yorkshire and Selby Abbey. Rev. Thomas P. Levett died at Frenchgate, Richmond, in 1938. Rev. Thomas Levett's brother Robert Kennedy Levett attended Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and also chose a career in the ministry. Another brother, George Arthur Monro Levett, went up to Christ's College, Cambridge after Clifton College, and became a land agent in Kent.

Packington Hall was subsequently sold to the Bowden cable manufacturing company CTP Gills Ltd., which manufactures parts for automotive companies. The company occupied the home in the 1940s when its factory in Birmingham was bombed. CTP Gills was sold in 2006 to Suprajit, an Indian engineering firm. In 2007 Gills Cables Ltd vacated the property and moved to a smaller factory in Tamworth.

A nice easy wander on a lovely crisp winter day. There isn't a whole lot left inside but I do like these kind of 'off the trail' locations.

Thanks for looking ​

 

[Rach1305]

Does anyone know what the property/grounds are like now? Is it private land or is it just abandoned and easily accessible?

 

[skatecave]

Looking on Google earth this place looks like it's been refurbished for use

 

[mookster]

Looking on Google earth this place looks like it's been refurbished for use

Yes work began on it about three years ago.

 

[Louis Balfour]

I used to be a customer of CTP Gills in the early 1990's - manufactured automotive control cables. Its location always struck me as being a bit odd. There was a number of similar independent small companies reliably and efficiently making this type of product but many disappeared as supplier numbers were reduced through short sighted purchasing policies.