AS THE winter sun streamed in through the magnificent Elizabethan mullions of Castle Bromwich Hall, I gazed out over the gloriously replanted formal gardens and wished that this great house may once again find an owner who will lavish on it the love and money it deserves.

Here swish Elizabethan architecture is married with superb James II interiors of the very finest quality, all surviving remarkably unaltered, with not a Georgian sash in sight. The Victorians added a tower and repanelled the entrance hall, but otherwise house and gardens have changed little in nearly 300 years.

The hall’s last resident, Ida, Countess of Bradford, died in 1936. Even then Birmingham suburbia was engulfing the estate. Yet the hall remains the centre of an attractive historic enclave. The box garden to the north has gilded gates leading to the still thriving 1726 Baroque church. The handsome coach house to the east is now smart offices. The grand vista looking south is still green, framed by trees and carpeted by turf. Best of all, walled gardens on every side provide the seclusion and protected setting that the hall needs to survive with dignity.

The Elizabethan house was built about 1599 by Sir Edward Devereux and sold in 1657 to Sir John Bridgeman, whose coat of arms and monogram were carved on his imposing new porch. To carry out his ambitious plans for both house and gardens Bridgeman turned to the soldier-architect Captain William Winde, who regularly employed the very finest craftsmen, notably the sculptor Edward Pierce, who supplied statues and chimney pieces for Castle Bromwich, and Edward Goudge the plasterer, whose ceilings, groaning with flowers, fruit and foliage rank with carving by Grinling Gibbons in virtuosity.

The hall, last occupied by Bovis as offices, now belongs to a Dubai investor. With a guide price of £2.5 million and a floor area of some 21,000 sq ft, it could appeal to the new breed of entrepreneurial owners who like to put great houses to work. The opportunity here is to create a magical synergy with the hall’s garden trust, which has so beautifully restored the gardens with help from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The Baroque terraces step down the hillside with beautifully replanted parterres, bowers, kitchen garden, orchards and wilderness. Cross vistas are handsomely terminated by Classical pavilions and trellis archways. There is an archery ground and a maze; so many garden rooms and axial walks that it needs a full hour to explore. The restoration has been done to the most exacting standards, with hundreds of yards of trim holly hedges tapering to a point like obelisks.

Working together, house and garden trust could offer a ravishing venue for events — whether concerts, private parties, corporate or charitable functions. The big challenge is the work needed inside the house. Although it is clearly a solidly constructed building, there is a formidable amount of unpicking to do. The legacy of the last commercial occupants includes (in the finest rooms) trunking for electric cabling run across superb oak panelling and in front of fireplaces, hot-water pipes that cut through door frames, and hideous griddle lights (even suspended from Goudge’s peerless ceilings) in virtually every room.

But some of the unpicking will be fun. Lift the carpet tiles in the hall and an elaborate stone and marble floor is visible. As partitions are whipped out, the rooms will regain their fine proportions. If the house restoration can match the standard set in the garden, Castle Bromwich Hall will be a marvel of Middle England.

The hall is being sold for £2.5 million through Knight Frank, 0121-200 2220

For the gardens, 0121-749 4100 or www.cbhgt.org.uk

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