Parish: SUTTON
District Council: EAST SUFFOLK (previously Suffolk Coastal)
TM 314 464
Not open to the public
In an area known as the Sandlings in East Suffolk, Broxtead House (Grade II) is c. 6.5km (4mls) south-east of Woodbridge and lies in an isolated position east of the small village of Sutton. With poor, acidic, sandy soils, the area was historically mainly heathland, grazed by sheep and with rabbit warrens, such as at nearby Sutton Common where much-diminished remains of a rabbit mound survive today, although warrens decreased during the late-nineteenth century. Embarking on a trip to the area in 1784 with Arthur Young, the writer and propagandist for the progressive agricultural practices of the time, François de La Rochefoucauld wrote of the area being ‘wild and inhabited by a great number of rabbits’ but also the land in places had been improved to produce a variety of crops, especially carrots.
Broxtead House was built by John Vancouver soon after he bought the Sutton Farm Estate in 1799. John was the brother of Charles Vancouver, the agricultural advisor to many including the British government and Captain George Vancouver the adventurer who sailed with Captain Cook and captained the Discovery on its voyage to survey the north-west coast of America. Living at Sutton Farm with his family during construction, John borrowed heavily to build his small country house and planned to make considerable alterations to improve the yield of the land, probably with advice from his brother Charles, and thus increase his investment and create a desirable estate, perhaps with the intention of leasing it out in the future. Unfortunately, during the early 1800s the falling price of corn proved to be his downfall and he was forced to sell the estate to pay off his debts. The buyers were the trustees of Peter Thellusson who were expanding the estate around nearby Rendlesham Hall. Over the next hundred years the majority of the Broxtead land lay uncultivated and was primarily woodland, pine belts and hedges, commons and open heathland and used as part of a wider sporting estate.
Broxtead House sits on a compact site overlooking a small area of parkland to the south and east with a sweeping drive from the west. To the rear of the house is the original stable-yard and to the west a red brick enclosed walled garden, which unusually has straight walls to the north and east with a partial circle of wall to the west and south. Since the nineteenth century there have been woods to the north and east of the house but little in the way of pleasure grounds that were traditionally part of country house garden landscapes, their development probably curtailed by the forced sale of the estate by John Vancouver.
In 1914 the Broxtead Estate was sold to the Paul farming family who continued to use the land for sporting purposes, delaying any commercial farming until the 1960s. By 2012 only half of the estate was cultivated with the rest developed for recreational purposes and the remnants of heathland preserved and extended under the Higher Level Stewardship Scheme. Broxtead House, an attached cottage and garden are now rented out.
SOURCES:
Anglia Farmer, 6 November 2012. Interview with A.J. Paul http://www.angliafarmer.co.uk/family-estate-recreates-suffolks-lost-heathland/ (accessed December 2019)
Bickerton, Greville, Sutton People, some of whom lived on the Broxtead Estate, Suffolk 1564–1914, 2006.
Clarke & Simpson, Rental Particulars, September, 2017.
Scarfe, Norman, editor and translator of François de La Rochefoucauld, A Frenchman’s Year in Suffolk, 1784, 1988.
Williamson, Tom, Sandlings. The Suffolk Coast and Heaths, 2005.
1844 (surveyed 1844) tithe map and apportionment.
1887 (surveyed 1880) Ordnance Survey map.
1905 (revised 1902) OS map.
2022 Google aerial map (Imagery © Bluesky, CNES / Airbus, Getmapping plc, Infoterra Lts & Bluesky, Maxar Technologies, Map data © 2022).
Historic England Archive:
No: SC00978. The Broxtead Estate, Sutton. Sales Particulars.
Heritage Assets:
Broxtead House (Grade II). Historic England No. 1283832.
Site ownership: Private
Study written: February 2023.
Type of Study: Desktop
Written by: Tina Ranft
Amended:
