Monument record HXN 016 - Oakley Park Stables; Hoxne Hall (PMed)

Site of Hoxne Hall (also known since the C19 as Oakley Park) and [second?] Bishop's palace. The house site is now (1993) under grass, but the lines of the buried walls and internal divisions are visible at ground level and from the air. Vaulted brick cellars still survive below ground level (part of a brick arch visible in a small hole). The only standing remains are the separate courtyard-plan stable block to the N of the house and a dilapidated terrace wall to the E. The stable is C19 brick-built with stone dressings and a domed turret over the main gate, now in poor condition. The terrace wall is also C19, brick base with brick and cement piers and the remains of iron railings (S1-S3).
Hall is said to be on the site of the medieval palace of the Bishops of Norwich (S4)(S5) - see Med and also HXN 006. Manor taken by the Crown in 1535. Leased to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk 1536-7 and granted 1543 to Sir Robert Southwell, Master of the Rolls. Remained with Southwell family until 1621, then Prescott family until 1642, Maynards until 1817 and then Kerrisons (S6).
Map of 1619 depicts a tall 4-storey gatehouse in a long range fronting the E side of a rectangular moat. Behind it lay a courtyard leading the front of the house. A formal garden is shown on the N side of the courtyard and house. At the rear of the moated platform were various ancillary buildings, including a dovecote, and an orchard (S7). The moat and house, but not the gatehouse, are shown on a map of 1700 (S8). By 1757 the moat had been filled in and the house, though still in the same place, appears to have undergone some remodelling. It is shown surrounded by a large and complex garden and park (also see HXN 022 for the park)(S9). The house was extensively remodelled 1830 by Sidney Smirke for Sir Edward Kerrison, giving it giant porticos on the S & W (entrance) sides. Demolished in the 1930s (S10)(S11). Ground plan of the house shown on the OS 1:2500 maps of 1884 and 1904. For an engraving of the house during Viscount Maynard's ownership, see (S10).
2003: Monitoring of groundworks associated with conversion of the stable block to dwelling. The stables appear to have been constructed on a hardcore pad, as such the area was heavily disturbed. Whilst most of the excavated trenches were quite shallow, suggestions of the moat known to have occupied the site were seen in trenches on the east and west sides of the building. These dark humic layers probably represent remains of the northern and eastern moat arms. PMed brickwork, mainly drains and culverts were noted in the trenches to the east of the building and the service trench to the south-west (S13).
See details in Lost Country Houses of Suffolk by WM Roberts.
See also Med.

Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2003 (S15).