Parish: BRENT ELEIGH and MILDEN
District Council: BABERGH
TL 946 473
Not open to the public
Straddling the parish boundary between Milden and Brent Eleigh, the site of seventeenth century Wells Hall (Grade II) lies south of the village of Brent Eleigh c. 11km (7mls) north-east of Sudbury. It is on slightly rising ground beside the flood plain of the River Brett in a rural location on the Suffolk clayland plateau. The Hall and part of the moat are in Milden, while to the south-west in Brent Eleigh parish a sixteenth century brick wall and gateway (Grade II*) flanks the road running between the two villages. The house is surrounded on three sides by a square moat. The eastern side has now gone, although part of it survived into the early-twentieth century. To the east of the moat was a rectangular fishpond, now dry. The wall beside the road is part of an early entrance court and garden enclosure with the gateway on the central axis of the moat causeway that once served as the entrance to a much earlier and grander house. The brick gateway has been described as having an ecclesiastic look, marking the transition from public into a private world. The wall was repaired in the nineteenth century. Also on the site is a large barn that probably dates back to the earlier Hall. Hodskinson’s map names the site, suggesting it still had some status in 1783.
The original hall was once the seat of the Shoreland and D’Ewes families and served as the manor house for Milden from at least the fifteenth century – not to be confused with Milden Hall (Grade II) which was originally the manor house for Rashbrooks manor. In 1560 Wells Hall is said to have been owned by R. Thorpe, was sold to the Colmans by 1677 and leased as a farm by 1739 and becoming part of the Brent Eleigh Hall Estate. The original house had been replaced by the smaller surviving Wells Hall before that time. In the same year the estate was inherited by Edward Goate of Thrandeston. It passed through marriage to Thomas Brown of Tostock Place and the family sold their entire estate including Wells Hall farm during the period 1915–22. Wells Hall is now a private house accessed via a central brick bridge over the moat with lawned gardens to the south and west, likely on the footprint of earlier garden enclosures.
SOURCES:
Aitkens, P., Aisled Barns in Suffolk, 1989.
Birch, Mel, Suffolk’s Ancient Sites Historic Places, 2004.
Brent Eleigh Conservation Area Appraisal, Babergh District Council, adopted 7 March 2019.
Cromwell, Thomas. K., Excursions in the county of Suffolk, 1818.
Kirby, J., The Suffolk Traveller, 1735.
Pevsner, N. and Radcliffe E., The Buildings of England: Suffolk, 1974.
Sandon, Eric, Suffolk Houses. A Study of Domestic Architecture, 1977.
‘The ancient families of Suffolk’ in Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History, Proceedings, Vol. VIII, Part 2, 1893.
Victoria County History, Suffolk, 1911.
White, William, History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Suffolk, 1874.
jmc4 – Church Explorer https://www.flickr.com/photos/52219527@N00/14597489110 (accessed April 2022).
Hodskinson’s Map of Suffolk in 1783.
1838 tithe map and apportionment.
1885 (surveyed 1885) Ordnance Survey map.
1905 (revised 1902) OS map.
1927 (revised 1924) OS map.
2020 aerial image. Source: Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics, and the GIS User Community
2022 Google aerial map (Imagery © Bluesky, CNES / Airbus, Getmapping plc, Infoterra Lts & Bluesky, Maxar Technologies, Map data © 2022).
Heritage Assets:
Suffolk Historic Environment Record (SHER): MDN 004, MDN 023.
Historic England Research Record, Boundary wall and gateway SW of Wells Hall. Hob Uid: 870079.
Historic England Research Record, Wells Hall moat and fishpond. Hob Uid: 384817.
Wells Hall (Grade II), Historic England No: 1193941.
Wall and Gateway South-West of Wells Hall (Grade II), Historic England No: 1037386. Milden Hall (Grade II), Historic England No: 1181918.
Suffolk Record Office (now Suffolk Archives):
SRO (Bury St Edmunds) 1754/1/356. Opinion of Francis Pemberton, serjeant, on title of Sir Thomas Darcy to manor of Milden alias Wells Hall, 1675 in Brent Eleigh Hall Estate Records.
SRO (Bury St Edmunds) 1754/1/361. Covenant to levy fine of property as in 1764/360 excepting 40a. parcel of Milden Manor 1677.
SRO (Bury St Edmunds) 1754/1/374. Bargain and Sale by will of Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, 1869.
SRO (Bury St Edmunds) 1754/1/366. Copy of charge of John Canham, merchant, of £1,000 on Milden Hall Estate, 1705 in Brent Eleigh Hall Estate Records.
SRO (Bury St Edmunds) 1754/1/369. Lease for 14 years at annual rent of £80 of Wells Hall farm 1739.
SRO (Bury St Edmunds) 1754/1/189. Lease for 4 years from October next, at rent of £90 p.a., of Wells Hall farm 1756.
SRO (Bury St Edmunds) 1754/1/190. Draft lease 1800.
SRO (Bury St Edmunds) HD526/97/6. Plan of part of the Brent Eleigh Estate, including Wells Hall, papers of the Revd Edmund Farrer.
Site ownership: Private
Study written: February 2023
Type of Study: Desktop
Written by: Tina Ranft
Amended:
