Agecroft Hall is a Tudor manor house and estate located at 4305 Sulgrave Road on the James River in the Windsor Farms neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia, United States.
Thomas C. Williams Jr. of Richmond, Virginia, a wealthy entrepreneur, purchased Agecroft Hall upon the advice of his architect, Henry G. Morse.
During the Country Place Era, when many wealthy American families were building extensive country estates emulating those they had seen in Europe, Williams, whose business interests included tobacco, banking, and shipping, wished to build a true English manor house on his 23-acre estate overlooking the James River.
The name "Agecroft", meaning "field of wild celery" (from ache and croft) was adopted circa 1376, the old name of Pendlebury being dropped for the manor but not for the village.
But Sir Robert and his wife Cecily de Trafford had no son and on his death the property was divided equally between his four daughters.
[8] Cyril Bracegidle in his book Dark River: Irwell asserts that legend has it that the tale of the Babes in the Wood was inspired by an incident at the hall during the reign of Edward III.
On the morning of the Feast of the Ascension (the 40th Day after Easter Sunday) in 1374, young Roger Langley and his sister escaped from the villainous Robert de Holland and his men and hid in the forest which covered the slopes of the Irwell Valley, cared for by loyal retainers, until their guardian, John of Gaunt, the first Duke of Lancaster, rescued them.