Stowlangtoft Parish

Mid-nineteenth century Stowlangtoft Hall was built in Italianate-style to replace the earlier manor house on lower ground, closer to a river and the village called Stow Hall. The old hall had a history dating back to medieval times, although the house that was demolished or burnt down in the mid-nineteenth century was originally built in the seventeenth century. It had a small park with a surviving walled garden and lost pleasure grounds featuring a surviving sinuous lake and island, with bridge over the river to the northern section of parkland. The parkland began to expand before the new Stowlangtoft Hall was built and a road closure and moving the route of another road allowed a much larger landscape park to develop early in the nineteenth century. More recently some areas of parkland have reverted to fields, but the remaining parkland features a number of mature nineteenth century parkland trees. The new hall was built on a gentle slope with surviving loggia, domed conservatory and garden terrace, although a lower terrace and Italian garden have been lost. The remnants of linking pleasure gardens between the old walled garden and new hall survive. Stowlangtoft Hall became a care home in the twentieth century and the stable courtyard was converted to residential and holiday lets. The care home and estate have been in the ownership of the same family for nearly a hundred years and are managed by family members today, including a well-established shoot that was a favourite of the Price of Wales, later King Edward VII.
Not open to the general public