Brand Hall’s classic pedimented Georgian form is well known to collectors of Wade ceramic models, albeit under the name of ‘Bloodshot Hall’. The reason for this relatively unknown house being the inspiration was that it had been purchased by the pottery owner Sir George Wade (1891–1986) in 1951 and it was, at the time of the model’s issue in 1981, his family home.

Prior to the purchase at auction by the Wades, The Brand – as it is often known – was owned by John Radford-Norcop, where he lived until his death, in 1959, with his daughter Henrietta Grace and her husband Group-Captain Robert Sorel-Campbell CBE, AFC. The Radford-Norcops, whose main seat had been at Betton Hall (q.v.), had acquired the house and 2,000 acres in 1910. At this time, it seems that the estate’s former owners, the Griffins, sold the property. A northern section of the original Brand estate was sold separately to Hugh Ker Colville, the owner of nearby Bellaport. The Griffin family had inherited Brand, along with the Pell Wall estate (q.v.) from Purney Sillitoe. Sillitoe, in turn, had bought the property from the family of J.W. Davison in 1838, to enlarge his landholding and the house was empty when Bagshaw’s agent called in 1851.

Much of what stands at Brand today, though, dates from the time of the Davisons from whom Sillitoe bought the house. They had originally acquired the estate from the Grosvenor family of Bellaport in about 1680. Richard Grosvenor, in turn, had acquired The Brand from Sir George Mainwaring of Ightfield, possibly in circa 1600. Parts of a timber-framed house, that was probably built for the Grosvenors, still stand within the western part of the present building.

The 1680 purchaser seems to have been George Davison, who was described as ‘of the Brand’ in 1686 and was buried at the parish church of Norton-in-Hales in 1714. The Davison family were originally called Styche but George’s grandfather, James Styche had inherited an estate from his Davison step-father and had consequently taken his patronymic of Davison in lieu of Styche. Yet when the pediment with cartouche of arms, on the east front of Brand, was added – supposedly by George’s son, Samuel Davison (1667–1741) – the arms of Styche were proudly displayed.