Blundeston Parish

Blundeston Hall

Blundeston Hall lies west of a rectangular moat that is believed to be the site of an ancient manor house. It is unclear when the present house was originally built, although it is known to have been in existence from at least the early-nineteenth century when it was described as having a ‘weird and gloomy appearance’ when Charles Dickens visited the village and the house is possibly the fictional birthplace of David Copperfield. The Blundeston Hall Estate was broken up in the early-twentieth century, the house and its small area of gardens that included the moat were sold as one lot. Afterwards the house was substantially restored. The moat site, although overgrown with trees and shrubs, continues to be part of the gardens of Blundeston Hall.
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Blundeston Parish

Blundeston Lodge

Previously known as Sydnors, Blundeston Villa and Blundeston House, eighteenth century Blundeston Lodge sat in a small landscape park substantially developed in the eighteenth century by the Revd Norton Nicholls, a friend of the landscape designer Humphry Repton and the poet Thomas Gray. Using picturesque principles, the wider landscaping included an ice-house, ha-ha, pleached arbour and summerhouses. Shelterbelts surrounded the parkland which was scattered with freestanding trees as it gently sloped down to Blundeston Decoy lake. Beside the lake were boathouses and a summerhouse known as ‘Gray’s Seat’. Near the house there was a square walled garden and a later mid-nineteenth century glasshouse/conservatory and fernery designed and built by James Pulham and Son, who created and specialised in the use of pulhamite, an artificial stone. The house was demolished c. 1960 to make way for a prison, which closed c. 2013 to be replaced by a new housing development and all trace of the historic landscaping has been lost except the surviving lake.
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Blundeston Parish