Registered Park or Garden: GLEMHAM HALL (4290)

Part of an early C18 formal garden, associated with an Elizabethan hall remodelled as a Georgian mansion, set in a park with late C17 features for which Humphry Repton produced a Red Book in 1791. HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT A park at Little Glemham is listed in an undated, c 1560, list of Suffolk deer parks, at which time the land had been in the hands of the Glemham family since at least 1229. In the late C16 Sir Henry Glemham built a grand new hall, set within a park in which for a while the old moated manor house remained standing c 170m to the north-east. Following a loss of fortune during the late C17 the Glemham family were forced to sell the estate and it was purchased in 1708 by the North family (later earls of Guilford) who, between 1712 and 1724 under Dudley North, set about an extensive programme of restoration and remodelling. An estate map was produced in 1726, and another in 1771, both of which show the remodelled hall set in new enclosed formal gardens on all sides with avenues running up to them on the north, south, and west. Bowen's map of Suffolk dated 1750 also records the extent of the park at this time and in 1783 Hodskinson records it covering an area similar to that of today. At this time the old manor house with its moats still stood in the park. Dudley Long North inherited Glemham Hall in 1789 and two years later commissioned Humphry Repton (1752-1818) to produce a Red Book. A map produced in 1826 shows that many of the suggestions he made for the landscape, if not the Hall, were carried out, including the removal of the old manor house and the filling in of the moats and the extension of the park to the north beyond the turnpike road (now the A12). Following the early C19 remodelling of the park, the family made relatively few further changes to house, garden or park and in 1923 the eighth Earl of Guilford put the estate up for sale. It was purchased by Captain J M Cobbold of the successful Suffolk brewing family, who retained the park and laid out new gardens within the original C18 walled and hedged enclosures. The site remains (2000) in private ownership. LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING Glemham Hall lies along the eastern side of the main A12, Lowestoft to Ipswich road, c 20km north-east of Ipswich and c 12km west of the coastal town of Aldeburgh in a wellpopulated part of rural Suffolk. It is situated midway between the villages of Stratford St Andrew and Little Glemham which both lie just beyond the park boundary. The park covers c 132ha, of which c 2ha are gardens, and is divided by the A12 which runs northeast to south-west through the northern section. Farmland and woodland encircle the site on all sides, with part of the eastern boundary formed by Tinker Brook road and the southern half of the western boundary by the A12. It is set in a gently rolling rural landscape and the park itself falls from south to north as far as the A12 and then rises again to the boundary. REFERENCES Humphry Repton, Red Book for Glemham Hall, 1791, reproduced in The Red Books for Brandsbury and Glemham Hall, (Dumbarton Oaks 1994) W White, Suffolk Directory (1844), p 163 Country Life, 27 (1 January 1910), pp 18-26 J Kenworthy-Brown et al, Burke's and Savills Guide to Country Houses Volume III, East Anglia, (1981), p 236 N Pevsner and E Radcliffe, The Buildings of England: Suffolk (1991), pp 336-7 Debrett Ancestry Research Ltd, The History of Glemham Hall, Little Glemham Suffolk (1998) T Williamson, Little Glemham Hall, (nd UEA report) [copy on EH file] Maps Draught of Glemham Hall and Park, 1726 (East Suffolk Record Office) E Bowen, A Map of the County of Suffolk, 1750 (East Suffolk Record Office) Thomas Barker, Map of Little Glemham Park, 1771 (East Suffolk Record Office) J Hodskinson, The County of Suffolk, 1783 (East Suffolk Record Office) Map of Little Glemham estate, 1816 (East Suffolk Record Office) Tithe map for Little Glemham parish, 1842 (P461/113), (East Suffolk Record Office) OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1884 2nd edition published 1905 3rd edition published 1945 OS 25" to 1 mile: 2nd edition published 1904 Illustrations Painting of Glemham Hall, c 1700 (private collection) Archival items Many of the North family papers are held in the East Suffolk Record Office