Gloucestershire from the beginning of the 17th century up until the early 20th century. The story of the Hale family houses in that small village of Alderley is unusually complex. Alderley is situated 2 miles to the south of Wotton-under-Edge, sandwiched between two brooks, the Ozleworth and Kilcott, underneath Winner Hill, and in the 16th and 17th century it was home to a number of woollen mills. The first of the Hale family's houses in the village was West End House, built in 1608 by Robert Hale (c. 1572 – 1614), a barrister at Lincoln's Inn. He was the second son of another Robert Hale who had made his money as a successful cloth merchant in Wotton-under-Edge. The younger Robert Hale had acquired land in the village in 1599 through his marriage to Joan Poyntz (1577–1612), the daughter of Matthew Poyntz, a gentleman living in the village at that time. This house was substantially rebuilt in the 18th century, but continued to be called West End House until the mid-19th century; today it is known as The Grange or Alderley Grange and is a Grade II listed building. It was Robert and Joan's only child, the famous 17th century jurist Sir Matthew Hale (1609–1676), who in 1656 - some 50 years after being born in West End House - acquired the manor of Alderley in exchange for Meysey Hampton with Andrew Barker of Fairford Park, and between then and 1662 had The Lower House built, a new house so called in order to distinguish it from the original manor house (The Upper House) on the other side of the road. With both of Sir Matthew Hale's parents dying before he had reached the age of 5 he was brought up by Anthony Kingscot, a close relative and devout puritan. He remained firmly religious throughout his life and it is possible that this influenced his choice of location for the house: immediately to the southwest of St Kenelm's Church, whose origins date back to c. 1450. In 1663, the year after the construction of The Lower House was completed, Sir Matthew Hale was granted the right of way from his new manor house into the churchyard. The Lower House was then to remain the Hale family home for the next 100 years. The Lower House was a substantial property: a nine-bay house with gables at either end and five small dormer