Haden Hill Park is at Haden Hill, between Halesowen and Old Hill in the West Midlands, England, on the southern edge of the Black Country. Within its grounds are the sixteenth and seventeenth century Haden Hall (also known as Haden Hill Old Hall), the Victorian Haden Hill House and Corngreaves Nature Reserve. The estate, of which the Park was a central part, was built up by the Haden family over many hundreds of years, before passing to the Barrs family by marriage in 1876. In 1877 it passed to George Alfred Haden Haden-Best (1839–1921) who built Haden Hill House and developed the parkland. On his death in 1921, it was bequeathed to his nephews, the Bassano brothers, who offered it for sale. It was bought by Rowley Regis Borough Council (later succeeded by Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council) following a public subscription in 1922 and became a public facility. A major restoration programme over the period 2000–2007 was largely funded by the National Lottery. The Park has been given a Green Flag Award every year since 2004 and also has been a Green Heritage Site winner. In addition, the park won the Black Country Hotel and Tourism Awards ('Small Visitor Attraction' category) in 2008. Sandwell Council lists Haden Hill Park as one of the borough's nine "flagship parks". History Before 1877: early history The Haden family had occupied the site of the present park possibly as far back as the thirteenth century. The family had been farmers and had prospered in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by stint of advantageous marriage and investment in adjacent land. The main family house was the building now known as Haden Hall, essentially a large farmhouse that had been extended and rebuilt over time but mostly is believed to date from the seventeenth century. The first Haden to be styled 'gentleman' was Henry Haden (1633–1675) who was succeeded by his son Thomas (1684–1756) and then by Thomas's son John (1723–1796). John married late in life to a young woman, Mary Kendrick, leaving one child, Anna Eliza. John expressing a wish that his young wife should remarry on his death and this she did, to the Reverend George Barrs, an Evangelical Protestant clergyman. As Anna Eliza (1790–1876) was herself to die childless shortly after inheriting, under the terms of John Haden's will, the estate passed to Eliza's half-brother, Alfred Barrs (1804–1877), son of Reverend George and