Fornham Hall

Fornham Hall c. 1820

Fornham Hall was a large 18th-century country house near Bury St Edmunds. It was demolished in 1957.

History

The Fornham estate was bought by Samuel Kent, a rich grain merchant, in 1731.[1] Kent became a local MP and High Sheriff of Suffolk.[1]

Sir Charles Kent (Samuel's son-in-law) employed James Wyatt to design a large new house on the estate in the 1770s.[1] The house was acquired by Bernard Howard (subsequently 12th Duke of Norfolk) in 1797.[1] It was expanded on the Duke's behalf by the architect Robert Abraham in the 1820s[2] and sold to the second Lord Manners in 1842;[3] in 1862 Manners sold it to Sir William Gilstrap in 1842.[4]

The estate was acquired by the War Office in 1939 and used for training purposes by the Royal Engineers during World War II[5] before the house was demolished in 1957.[4]

The grounds include the tower of the ruined church of St Genevieve.[6]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fornham Hall.
  1. 1 2 3 4 Robinson, p. 96
  2. ↑ Database of Houses
  3. ↑ Fornham St Martin local history site
  4. 1 2 Robinson, p. 98
  5. ↑ Airfield Information Exchange
  6. ↑ Suffolk Churches

Coordinates: 52°16′57″N 0°41′48″E / 52.2825°N 0.6966°E / 52.2825; 0.6966

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/19/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.