The Hall Court
Just off Bridge Street in the centre of Polesworth, the Hall Court has gradually become the focus of much of the activity that takes place within the village. The land was originally part of the Norman Abbey, perhaps being used for growing vegetables and medicinal herbs. The site was also exploited as a part of the area's coal mining industry.
Little evidence of the Abbey remains to be seen on the site today. As mentioned elsewhere, it is believed the Sir Francis Nethersole built the tithe barn on the foundations of an earlier monastic barn. The only other survivor of the period is the dovecote which stands opposite the barn.
Perhaps built at the same time as the Abbey, in the mid-12th Century, the dovecote would have been used to provide a supply of fresh meat during the winter months (some sense of the building's worth is shown in an inventory of the Abbey's holdings from January, 1362, where the dovecote is valued at 30 shillings). The present building was constructed on the foundations of that earlier dovecote, some time in the Queen Anne period (1702-1714); the large stone blocks at the base of the new building are from the original 12th Century structure.
However, given that there are no gaps in the roof of the building for pigeons to get in and out of, some have speculated that the newer dovecote may not have been used to house birds, or that it may have been rebuilt yet again, perhaps during the Victorian period.
With the sale of the Abbey, the Hall Court passed through the hands of the Goodere and Nethersole families, before the estates at Polesworth were sold to the Chetwynd family. Local landowner, Sir George Chetwynd, sold the Hall Court in 1912 to a group of local gentlemen. In 1946, the site was acquired by Polesworth Parish Council, in whose ownership it remains. In the 1950s, a memorial hall was built on the site, followed over the next decade by a branch of the County Library and a youth centre (which was later used by the local doctors' practice, before becoming a youth club again).
During the early 1990s, extensive building work was carried out on the Hall Court as a part of the "Polesworth Project". Although the principal feature of the scheme was the renovation of the tithe barn, other work included the repair of the dovecote's roof (the building is now used for storage) and the landscaping of much of the Hall Court.