Description:The Aston family from Haywood acquired the Tixall estate through marriage; the hall was rebuilt in 1555. In 1580 Sir Walter Aston added the gate-house.
Six years later Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned in the gate-house whilst her apartments at Chartley Castle were searched for evidence of treason.
In 1720 the estate passed to the Clifford family, who rebuilt the hall in 1785 using local stone. In about 1835 the Cliffords sold Tixall to the Earl Talbot of Ingestre.
Tixall Hall was demolished in 1926, the stone was reused in the building of St. John's Church, Stafford. The stables and gate-house remain; today the gate-house can be hired as a holiday home.
The wide expanse of water in the foreground of this image is the Staffordshire & Worcestershire canal. Tixall wides are said to have been cut on the insistence Thomas Clifford. He grudgingly accepted the building of the canal through his land - on condition that a lake was provided to enhance the view from Tixall Hall.