History of Hogarths Hotel
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This building was purchased by Mr and Mrs Hogarth in 2004 when it was trading as a small bed and breakfast business with 8 bedrooms.
Mr and Mrs Chambers had previously owned the property and had added a small cottage to the rear of the property where there were some outbuildings which now form the William Suite.
Prior to the Chambers, the property had been owned by Solihull Riding club and had various uses including a club house for the members and latterly it was converted to four flats. There is however an interesting local history to the building.
The property was said to have been uninhabited for several years until sometime in the mid 19 Century when one of the land owners at the time (probably John Heath Stubbs) decided that it would be a good place for breeding his game birds. In around 1876, a keepers house and garden with Dog kennels were built on the site of the hotel and an aviary was constructed on the island in the moat.
The remains of the aviary can still be seen as wrought iron work at the side of the main lawns. When Mr Stubbs died he left the estate to his three children. They sold it to Mr GF Muntz in 1976 for £55,179. The keeper´s house was used as a hunting lodge by Mr Muntz.
Mr Muntz died in 1898 and a Mr Hermann Schurhoff purchased the property and set about converting the hunting lodge and made it in to The Moat Farm. He and his wife Johanna had come from Prussia to live in Edgbaston and he bought Moat Farm as a country retreat.
At the outbreak of the First World War, he was on holiday in Switzerland and judged it sensible to stay there as he had British and Swiss joint nationality. Meanwhile The Moat Farm was used to house German POWs which caused many strange rumours locally.
When they returned to the house after the Great War, the Schurhoff´s brought home a Swiss chalet which was erected in the grounds and a summer house was built on the Island with a timber bridge to reach it. The Summer House can still be seen on the Island and has recently been restored and is used to host private events including weddings on the island.
At the time the Schurhoffas kept Peafowl on the island. They cleared out the Moat and a boat house which looks rather like a cave was constructed, which can still be seen to the right of the island. Hermann and Johanna´s daughter, Ellen, married a member of a well known local family, Charles E Martineau, who became professor of Mathematics and Accounting at Birmingham University.
When Ellen´s parents died, she and Charles brought their family of two boys and four girls to live at the Moat. So the Martineau´s with their many and varied talents came to Bentley Heath and the Moat became known to local residents as the Martineau´s Moat. The Martineau´s added a further extension which included the Music room, still so called today. The House remained in the family until Mrs Martineau died in 1958 and the estate was sold.
the music room - hogarths hotel 1958 hogarths hotel 1989 hogarths hotel 2009