Oxburgh Hall

Last updated

Oxburgh Hall
Oxburgh Hall, 2017.jpg
Oxburgh Hall 2017
Oxburgh Hall
General information
Typecountry house
Architectural style Tudor
LocationIn the village of Oxborough, 7 miles south west of Swaffham
Town or city Oxborough
Country England
Coordinates 52°34′52″N0°34′13″E / 52.5810421°N 0.5704133°E / 52.5810421; 0.5704133 Coordinates: 52°34′52″N0°34′13″E / 52.5810421°N 0.5704133°E / 52.5810421; 0.5704133
Completed1482
Owner National Trust
Technical details
Materialbrick, stone and slate

Oxburgh Hall is a moated country house in Oxborough, Norfolk, England. The hall was built for Sir Edmund Bedingfeld who obtained a licence to crenellate in 1482. The Bedingfelds gained the manor of Oxborough through marriage in the early 15th century, and the family has lived at the hall since its construction, although ownership passed to the National Trust in 1952. The house underwent extensive refurbishment in the mid 19th century under John Chessell Buckler and Augustus Pugin.

Contents

History

The courtyard front of the gatehouse, with paired polygonal stair towers Oxburgh-gatehouse-inside.jpg
The courtyard front of the gatehouse, with paired polygonal stair towers

An example of a late medieval, inward-facing great house, Oxburgh stands within a square moat about 75 metres on each side, and was originally enclosed; the hall range facing the gatehouse was pulled down in 1772 for Sir Richard Bedingfeld, providing a more open U-shaped house, with the open end of the U facing south. The entrance, reached by a three-arched bridge on the north side, is through a fortified gatehouse, described by Nikolaus Pevsner as "the most prominent of the English brick gatehouses of the 15th century". [1] The gate was designed to evoke the owner's power and prestige, though as fortification its value is largely symbolic; it is flanked by tall polygonal towers rising in seven tiers, with symmetrical wings extending either side that reveal nothing on the exterior of their differing internal arrangements. About 1835 the open end of the U was filled in with a picturesque, by no means archaeologically correct range that recreated the central courtyard. [1] Other Victorian additions include the Flemish-style stepped gables, the massive southeast tower, the oriel windows overhanging the moat and terracotta chimneys. Four towers were added to the walled kitchen garden. In the 1830s under Sir Henry Richard Paston-Bedingfield, John Chessell Buckler and Augustus Pugin were commissioned to restore and develop the hall. [2] A chapel was added, and the walled kitchen garden and flower gardens were rebuilt. A stable block was also added. [3]

The hall is known for its priest hole, constructed by Nicholas Owen. The Catholic Bedingfelds constructed the closet, accessed through a lavatory, to enable the concealment of priests. [4] The hall is also notable for the Oxburgh Hangings, needlework hangings by Mary, Queen of Scots and Bess of Hardwick. Mary worked on these while imprisoned in England, in the custody of the Earl of Shrewsbury. [5]

A landscape park was laid out to the south and west of the house in the 1830s. A French parterre was laid out to the east of the moat at this time and a pleasure ground to the west of the new chapel was also created. [3] The estate has a number of woodland walks, including a 'Woodland Explorer' trail.

Oxburgh Hall and the remaining estate was auctioned in lots in 1950. The Hall and gardens faced demolition in 1951, but were saved when Sybil, Lady Bedingfeld, her daughter Mrs Frances Playford, and niece Mrs Violet Hartcup raised enough funds to buy Oxburgh back before giving it to the National Trust in 1952. [6]

In 2021, the Trust announced plans for the reversion of the 175 acres of land at Oxburgh from farmland back to wildlife-friendly woods and pasture. [7] The project will be informed by the use of photographs taken during an RAF aerial survey in 1946 and will see the planting of 227 trees to recreate habitats for local wildlife. [8]

Architecture and description

The hall has been listed Grade I on the National Heritage List for England since 1951. This is the highest level of designation. [2] The landscaped and formal gardens of the hall have been Grade II listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens since 1987. [3]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Pevsner & Wilson 2002, pp. 584–588.
  2. 1 2 Historic England. "Oxburgh Hall (Grade I) (1342586)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 Historic England. "Oxburgh Hall park and garden (Grade II) (1001010)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  4. Garnett 2000, p. 25.
  5. Garnett 2000, pp. 21–22.
  6. Garnett 2000, p. 47.
  7. "National Trust to recreate 19th-century Norfolk woodland using RAF photos". The Guardian. 7 May 2021.
  8. "Oxburgh Hall: Photos from 1946 help restore Tudor manor parkland". BBC News. Retrieved 11 May 2021.

Sources

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blickling Hall</span> Stately home in Blickling, Norfolk

Blickling Hall is a Jacobean stately home situated in 5,000 acres of parkland in a loop of the River Bure, near the village of Blickling north of Aylsham in Norfolk, England. The mansion was built on the ruins of a Tudor building for Sir Henry Hobart from 1616 and designed by Robert Lyminge. The library at Blickling Hall contains one of the most historically significant collections of manuscripts and books in England, containing an estimated 13,000 to 14,000 volumes. The core collection was formed by Sir Richard Ellys. The property passed into the care of the National Trust in 1940.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gawsworth Old Hall</span> Historic house museum in Cheshire, England

Gawsworth Old Hall is a Grade I listed country house in the village of Gawsworth, Cheshire, England. It is a timber-framed house in the Cheshire black-and-white style. The present house was built between 1480 and 1600, replacing an earlier Norman house. It was probably built as a courtyard house enclosing a quadrangle, but much of it has been demolished, leaving the house with a U-shaped plan. The present hall was owned originally by the Fitton family, and later by the Gerards, and then the Stanhopes. Since the 1930s it has been in the possession of the Richards family. Raymond Richards collected a number of items from other historic buildings and incorporated them into the hall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hughenden Manor</span> Grade I listed house in Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom

Hughenden Manor, Hughenden, Buckinghamshire, England, is a Victorian mansion, with earlier origins, that served as the country house of the Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield. It is now owned by the National Trust and open to the public. It sits on the brow of the hill to the west of the main A4128 road that links Hughenden to High Wycombe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eaton Hall, Cheshire</span> Country house in Cheshire, England

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).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Chalfield Manor</span> Grade I listed English country house in Wiltshire in the United Kingdom

Great Chalfield Manor is an English country house at Great Chalfield, about 2.5 miles (4 km) northeast of the town of Bradford on Avon in the west of the county of Wiltshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tabley House</span> Country house in Tabley Inferior, Cheshire, England

Tabley House is an English country house in Tabley Inferior, some 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) to the west of the town of Knutsford, Cheshire. The house is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. It was built between 1761 and 1769 for Sir Peter Byrne Leicester, to replace the nearby Tabley Old Hall, and was designed by John Carr. The Tabley House Collection exists as an exhibition showcased by the University of Manchester.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheffield General Cemetery</span> Cemetery in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England

The General Cemetery in the City of Sheffield, England opened in 1836 and closed for burial in 1978. It was the principal cemetery in Victorian Sheffield with over 87,000 burials. Today it is a listed Landscape on the English Heritage National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. It is also a Local Nature Reserve. It is owned by the City of Sheffield and managed on behalf of the city by a local community group, the Sheffield General Cemetery Trust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Moreton Hall</span> Moated half-timbered manor house in England

Little Moreton Hall, also known as Old Moreton Hall, is a moated half-timbered manor house 4.5 miles (7.2 km) southwest of Congleton in Cheshire, England. The earliest parts of the house were built for the prosperous Cheshire landowner William Moreton in about 1504–08, and the remainder was constructed in stages by successive generations of the family until about 1610. The building is highly irregular, with three asymmetrical ranges forming a small, rectangular cobbled courtyard. A National Trust guidebook describes Little Moreton Hall as being "lifted straight from a fairy story, a gingerbread house". The house's top-heavy appearance, "like a stranded Noah's Ark", is due to the Long Gallery that runs the length of the south range's upper floor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Buckenham</span> Human settlement in England

New Buckenham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk.

Sir Edmund Bedingfield or Bedingfeld.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Bedingfeld</span> Member of the Parliament of England

Sir Henry Bedingfeld (1505–1583), also spelled Bedingfield, of Oxburgh Hall, King's Lynn, Norfolk, was a Privy Councillor to King Edward VI and Queen Mary I, Lieutenant of the Tower of London, and Vice-Chamberlain of the Household and Captain of the guards. With Sir Henry Jerningham he was among the principals who rallied to Mary's cause following the death of Edward VI in 1553 and helped to set her upon the throne. He was a senior figure in the kinship group of Catholic recusant landowning knights of Suffolk. Given responsibility for the custody of Mary I's half-sister Elizabeth when in the Tower of London and at Woodstock, his reputation has suffered from the repetition of claims of his severity towards her: however Queen Elizabeth was respectful towards him and continued to find service for him. Among the foremost Englishmen of his time, he occupied prominent and honourable positions and was of unquestioned loyalty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oxborough</span> Human settlement in England

Oxborough is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk, well known for its church and manor house Oxburgh Hall. It covers an area of 13.024 km2 (5.029 sq mi) and had a population of 240 in 106 households in the 2001 census, reducing to a population of 228 in 111 households at the 2011 Census. For the purposes of local government, it falls within the district of Breckland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lytes Cary</span> Grade I listed house in Somerset, UK

Lytes Cary is a manor house with associated chapel and gardens near Charlton Mackrell and Somerton in Somerset, England. The property, owned by the National Trust, has parts dating to the 14th century, with other sections dating to the 15th, 16th, 18th, and 20th centuries. "Yet all parts blend to perfection with one another and with the gentle sunny landscape that surrounds them," comments Nikolaus Pevsner. The House is listed as Grade I by English Heritage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bishop's Palace, Wells</span> Historic house museum in UK

The Bishop's Palace and accompanying Bishops House at Wells in the English county of Somerset, is adjacent to Wells Cathedral and has been the home of the Bishops of the Diocese of Bath and Wells for 800 years. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">River Gadder</span> River in Norfolk, England

The River Gadder is 10.4 km (6.5 mi) long tributary of the River Wissey. It rises from a tiny headwater in the north-east of the parish of Cockley Cley in the English county of Norfolk. The river rises in a watermeadow 0.6 miles (0.97 km) north east of Home Farm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Chessell Buckler</span> British architect (1793–1894)

John Chessell Buckler was a British architect, the eldest son of the architect John Buckler. J. C. Buckler initially worked with his father before taking over his practice. His work included restorations of country houses and at the University of Oxford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church of St Thomas of Canterbury and English Martyrs, St Leonards-on-Sea</span> Church in East Sussex , United Kingdom

The Church of St Thomas of Canterbury and English Martyrs is the Roman Catholic church serving St Leonards-on-Sea, a town and seaside resort which is part of the Borough of Hastings in East Sussex, England. The present church, which combines a plain, unadorned Gothic Revival exterior with a lavishly decorated interior featuring extensive early 20th-century paintings by Nathaniel Westlake, is the third building used for Roman Catholic worship in the seaside resort. James Burton's new town of 1827, immediately west of Hastings, was home to a convent from 1848; public worship then transferred to a new church nearby in 1866. When this burnt down, prolific and "distinguished" architect Charles Alban Buckler designed a replacement. The church remains in use as the main place of worship in a parish which extends into nearby Hollington, and has been listed at Grade II by English Heritage for its architectural and historical importance.

Tabley Inferior is a civil parish in Cheshire East, England. It contains 14 buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England as designated listed buildings. Of these, two are listed at Grade I, the highest grade, one is listed at Grade II*, the middle grade, and the others are at Grade II. Much of the parish is occupied by the estate of Tabley House, and 13 of the listed buildings are associated with it, the other listed building being a timber-framed house.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Bedingfield (died 1657)</span>

Sir Henry Bedingfield, of Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk, was an English Member of Parliament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hunstanton Hall</span> House in Old Hunstanton, Norfolk

Hunstanton Hall, Old Hunstanton, Norfolk, England is a country house dating originally from the 15th century. The gatehouse, now detached from the main building, is dated 1487. The wings were built in the seventeenth century and there are Victorian additions. The house was the ancestral home of the L'Estrange family, resident from the time of Domesday until after World War II. During the early 20th century, P. G. Wodehouse, a friend of Charles Le Strange, was a frequent visitor and the hall features in his novel Money for Nothing (1928) and his collection of short stories Very Good, Jeeves (1930). The hall has also been suggested as a model for Blandings Castle. The building suffered two major fires, in 1853 and 1947. In 1948, the hall was sold and converted into apartments. Hunstanton Hall is a Grade I listed building.