History of Sugnall Hall Estate

The history of the Sugnall dates back to the Domesday Book (1086), which was then known as called Soggenhulle, or Bird Hill, although the Domesday scribes actually wrote “Sotehelle”.

At that time Sugnall was owned by two Saxons – Frane and Fragrin – but they were quickly replaced by Joceran, a Norman, who was then part of the new ruling elite following King Harold’s defeat in 1066.

We know that Joceran was a prominent landowner, with lands at Bishop’s Offley, Aspley and Chatcull, in addition to Sugnall. Within three generations, however, most of these lands had been given away. The overlord, the Bishop of Lichfield, then took Sugnall off Joceran’s family and by the 1280s he was letting it to several tenants.

The manor (by then with only a fraction of the land in Sugnall) was probably demised to the Charnes family of Charnes. Their property passed by marriage to the Younges, who owned Charnes until the First World War.