Helmingham Hall is a moated manor house in Helmingham, Suffolk, England. It was begun by John Tollemache in 1480 and has been owned by the Tollemache family ever since. The house is built around a courtyard in typical late medieval/Tudor style. The house is listed Grade I on the National Heritage List for England, and its park and formal gardens are also Grade I listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. [1] [2]
The present Helmingham Hall may have been initially constructed in 1510 on the site of an earlier house called Creke Hall. The exterior was altered between 1745 and 1760, again in 1800 by John Nash, and in 1840. The original half-timbered walls have been concealed by brick and tiles. [3] The house is surrounded by a moat 60 feet wide, over which it is reached only by two working drawbridges, which have been pulled up every night since 1510. [4] These were originally operated with a windlass but in recent years this has been replaced by an electric motor. [5]
In addition to the house and gardens, several other buildings and structures on the estate are listed Grade II. The garden wall to the south west of the hall, [6] two urns and a male and female statue, [7] [8] [9] [10] a sundial and an obelisk, [11] [12] the tea rooms, bridge, game larder, and revetment are all listed Grade II. [13] [14] [15] [16]
The gate lodge to the north east of the hall and the left and right front lodges are also listed Grade II, as is the entrance gateway and piers between the front lodges. [17] [18] [19] [20]
The Church of St Mary on the edge of the park has connections with the Tollemache family dating back to the Middle Ages. The church is filled with memorials to several generations of the family, including a large tomb with a verse describing four generations of Tollemaches.
In 8 September 2019 near the estate grounds, an Iron Age/Roman coin hoard of 748 coins dating to 47 AD during the Roman conquest of Britain was discovered. 63 coins entered the collection of the British Museum and Colchester and Ipswich Museums, the rest placed on auction at Noonans Mayfair on 18 September 2024. The proceeds is to be split between the finder and the current owners. [21] [22] [23]
Though the house is not open to the public, Helmingham is best known for its fine gardens which are open to the public from May to September. There are semi-formal mixed gardens with extensive herbaceous borders, a rose garden, a knot garden, a parterre, a walled garden, an allée and an orchard. Beyond the gardens there is a 400-acre (1.6 km2) deer park with herds of red and fallow deer. [24]
Lady (Alexandra) Tollemache is a garden designer who works under the name Xa Tollemache. She supervises the gardens at Helmingham and has also worked on the Millennium Garden at Castle Hill in Devon, Dunbeath Castle in Scotland, and the Cloister Garden at Wilton House. [25]
The Tollemaches of Helmingham own one of the only two English Orpharion viols. [26] Their instrument is dated 1580 and bears the label of John Rose, a 16th-century English viol-maker. Of the four John Rose viols which survive, this is the only one in private hands. It is believed to have been made for Queen Elizabeth I who presented it to them during one of her visits to Suffolk. [27]
The "Tollemache lute manuscript" was acquired from the Helmingham Hall collections and sold by Sotheby's in 1965 to Robert Spencer. [28] It was written by Henry Sampson. Robert Spencer, the present owner of the manuscript, maintains "Tollemache" in its common reference, despite the change of owner. [29]
Catherine Tollemache lived at the hall from 1581 to 1612, many household papers from her time survive, with her collection of contemporary and medieval recipes. [30]
The hall has been used for filming including; BBC One's Antiques Roadshow ; [31] the Merchant Ivory film, The Golden Bowl and the 2019 BBC documentary Danny Dyer's Right Royal Family . [32]
Peckforton Castle is a Victorian country house built in the style of a medieval castle. It stands in woodland at the north end of Peckforton Hills one mile (2 km) northwest of the village of Peckforton, Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. The house was built in the middle of the 19th century as a family home for John Tollemache, a wealthy Cheshire landowner, estate manager, and member of parliament. It was designed by Anthony Salvin in the Gothic style. During the Second World War it was used as a hostel for physically disabled children.
Wythenshawe Hall is a 16th-century timber-framed historic house and former manor house in Wythenshawe, Manchester, England, 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Manchester city centre in Wythenshawe Park. Built for Robert Tatton, it was home to the Tatton family for almost 400 years. Its basic plan is a central hall with two projecting wings.
Baron Tollemache, of Helmingham Hall near Ipswich in the County of Suffolk, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The Tollemache family's surname and the title of the barony is pronounced TOL-mash.
Eaton Hall is the country house of the Duke of Westminster. It is 1 mile (2 km) south of the village of Eccleston, in Cheshire, England. The house is surrounded by its own formal gardens, parkland, farmland and woodland. The estate covers about 10,872 acres (4,400 ha).
Somerleyton Hall is a country house and 5,000-acre (2,000 ha) estate near Somerleyton and Lowestoft in Suffolk, England owned and lived in by Hugh Crossley, 4th Baron Somerleyton, originally designed by John Thomas. The hall is Grade II* listed on the National Heritage List for England, and its landscaped park and formal gardens are also Grade II* listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. The formal gardens cover 12 acres (4.9 ha). Inspired by Knepp Wildland, Somerleyton is rewilding 1,000 acres (400 ha) of the estate to which he has introduced free-roaming cattle, large black pigs and Exmoor ponies.
Chillingham Castle is a medieval castle in the village of Chillingham in the northern part of Northumberland, England. It was the seat of the Grey and Bennet families from the 15th century until the 1980s, when it became the home of Sir Edward Humphry Tyrrell Wakefield, 2nd Baronet, who is married to a member of the original Grey family.
Ashbocking is a village and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. The village is about seven miles north of Ipswich, and according to the 2001 census had a population of 318, increasing to 356 at the 2011 Census.
Timothy John Edward Tollemache, 5th Baron Tollemache is an English peer and landowner. He is the eldest son of Major John Edward Hamilton Tollemache, 4th Baron Tollemache (1910–1975), and his wife, Dinah Jamieson. He succeeded his father as Baron Tollemache in 1975 and is the current owner of Helmingham Hall in Suffolk, the principal seat of the Tollemache family.
The Tollemache family is an English noble family, originally from Suffolk. The family's surname is pronounced TOL-mash.
Dodington Park is a country house and estate in Dodington, South Gloucestershire, England. The house was built by James Wyatt for Christopher Bethell Codrington. The family had made their fortune from sugar plantations in the Caribbean and were significant owners of slaves. It remained in the Codrington family until 1980; it is now owned by the British businessman James Dyson.
John Jervis Tollemache, 1st Baron Tollemache was a British Conservative politician, landowner and peer who owned large estates in Cheshire. He was raised to the peerage of the United Kingdom in 1876 as Baron Tollemache, of Helmingham Hall in Suffolk.
The Bishop's Palace is the residence of the bishop of Bath and Wells in Wells, Somerset, England. The palace is adjacent to Wells Cathedral and has been the residence of the bishops since the early thirteenth century. It has been designated a grade I listed building.
Dorfold Hall is a Grade I listed Jacobean mansion in Acton, Cheshire, England, considered by Nikolaus Pevsner to be one of the two finest Jacobean houses in the county. The present owners are the Roundells.
Harrington is a village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England, administered by North Northamptonshire council. At the time of the 2001 census, the parish's population was 154 people, including Thorpe Underwood but reducing to 146 at the 2011 Census. The Church of England parish church of St Peter and St Paul is located north-east of the village itself.
Helmingham is a village and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England, 12 miles (20 km) east of Stowmarket, and 12 miles north (20 km) of Ipswich. It has a population of 170, increasing to 186 at the 2011 Census. It retains the same name by which it was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, namely Helmingheham, meaning 'the village of Helm's people'.
The Tollemache Almshouses, also known as the Wilbraham Almshouses or Wilbraham's Almshouses, are six former almshouses in Nantwich, Cheshire, England. They are in two blocks of three cottages each, located on the north side of Welsh Row at numbers 118–128. The present buildings, which are listed at grade II, were erected in 1870 by John Tollemache to replace adjacent almshouses founded by Sir Roger Wilbraham in 1613. The almshouses were modernised in 1980 and remain in residential use. The Hospital of St Lawrence, a medieval house for lepers, was possibly on or near the site of the present almshouses.
Sir Lionel Tollemache, 2nd Baronet PC, of Helmingham Hall in Suffolk, was twice elected as a Member of Parliament for Orford in Suffolk, in 1621 and 1628. He had a considerable reputation as a surgeon, but is said to have made many enemies due to his "immoderate temper".
There are over 20,000 Grade II* listed buildings in England. This page is a list of these buildings in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester.
Sir Lionel Tollemache, 1st Baronet, the son of Lionel Tollemache of Helmingham, Suffolk and Susanna Jermyn, served twice as Sheriff of Suffolk, in 1593 and 1609, and was knighted in 1612.
Pimhill is a civil parish in Shropshire, England. It contains 67 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, twelve are at Grade II*, the middle of the three grades, and the others are at Grade II, the lowest grade. The parish is to the northwest of Shrewsbury, it contains the villages of Albrighton, Atcham, Fitz, Leaton, Merrington and Preston Gubbals and smaller settlements, and is otherwise rural. In the parish are a former manor house and seven country houses that are listed, together with structures associated with them. Otherwise, most of the listed buildings are smaller houses, cottages, farmhouses and farm buildings, the older of which are timber framed, or have timber-framed cores. The other listed buildings include churches and items in the churchyards, a private chapel, a group of almshouses, an eyecatcher, a war memorial, and five mileposts,
52°10′18″N1°11′43″E / 52.17154°N 1.19537°E
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