(formerley Kelsale Rectory)
Parish: KELSALE CUM CARLTON
District Council: EAST SUFFOLK (formerly Suffolk Coastal)
TM 386 651
Not open to the public
Formerly a rectory, the early-nineteenth century Kelsale Court (Grade II) is c. 1.6km (1ml) north of Saxmundham beside the old main road from Ipswich to Lowestoft – both a distance of c. 35km (22mls) – which is now the B1121 after the opening of the Saxmundham bypass in 1988. The house stands on rising ground near the centre of Kelsale village and west of the medieval churchyard and Church of St Mary and St Peter (Grade I) with its dramatic late-nineteenth century lych gate (Grade II*). The church underwent a series of changes and additions over the centuries and was extensively restored at the end of the nineteenth century. The River Fromus winds its way close to the house and onward through the centre of the village as it flows south to join the River Alde near Snape.
A rural farming parish on the edge of the central Suffolk clayland plateau, Kelsale was an important medieval manor recorded at the time of Domesday and had a market in 1086. A deer park is thought likely to have been in existence at this time, although it was first documented in the early-twelfth century. The park lay to the north-west of the present village and had a continuous history into the seventeenth century when it was disparked. A former late-fifteenth or early-sixteenth century religious Guildhall (Grade II) – later variously used as a workhouse, school, teacher’s centre and now a private house – survives as further testament to the importance of the village. Although historically closely linked to Kelsale, Carlton was a separate parish until 1885 when the two parishes were joined to become Kelsale cum Carlton.
OWNERS AND OCCUPIERS
The elegant Kelsale Court was built c. 1810 for the Revd Lancelot Brown, grandson of the famous landscape designer Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown. The Revd Lancelot had succeeded the Revd Bence Sparrow who took the name Bence, becoming Bence Bence, on inheriting the extensive Thorington Estate, which lay c. 12km (8mls) to the north beside the road to Lowestoft. Almost immediately the Revd Bence, rector of Beccles, transferred the Thorington Estate to his son, Lt. Col. Henry Bence Bence. The Bence family were longstanding Lords of the manors of Thorington, Kelsale and Carlton and in 1810 the Revd Bence appointed Lancelot rector of Kelsale. Two years later Lancelot was to marry the Revd Bence’s daughter, Anna Maria, by which time her husband had a good living and a substantial new and fashionable home, no doubt explaining the need for seven live-in servants who were registered on the 1851 census. Lancelot was to remain rector of Kelsale until his death in 1868. He was also rector of Thorington from 1821 to 1850, and both Carlton and Saxmundham from 1826 to 1868. He was buried in Thorington although his wife is believed to have been buried in Kelsale churchyard when she died four years later.
The Revd George Irving Davies took over as rector after Lancelot’s death but appears to have preferred life in London, many of his duties being carried out by a curate. In 1881 the Revd Arthur Warcup Malim was one such curate who was visited by his friend Ernest Geldart. Known as a distinguished priest architect, Ernest noted in his diary of the visit that he slept in an empty rectory. Ernest later redesigned Kelsale church’s reredos. Later that year William Chambers, a farmer of 64ha (158a), his wife and son plus two servants moved into the rectory. In honour of his wife, the Revd George commissioned E. S. Prior to design the listed lych gate in 1890, which has been described as ‘probably the single finest Arts and Crafts movement structure in the whole of the county’. Just four years later George died and his son, also George, took over his position. Both are recorded as generous benefactors to the parish, but unlike his father son George made Kelsale Rectory his home during the early part of the twentieth century until his death in 1918.
By 1922 the Revd Francis John Brook Hart was living at the rectory and in 1930 Cannon Edmund E. Eddowes took up the post of rector, although he chose to live with his family at Kelsale Place, a large more modern property a little further to the north of the village. He stayed as rector until his death in 1960. There followed a period when the rectory was the home of members of the Cunard family, known for the Cunard Line shipping company, later becoming a care home, guest house and latterly once more a private home.
KELSALE COURT
Described by the architectural historian Leigh Alston as one of the ‘Finest Georgian Rectories to be found in Suffolk’, the majority of the house dates to c. 1810 and is built of pale yellow bricks, although to the rear there is earlier work in red brick. This suggests it was not a virgin site and where there was already a building, although not necessarily a house. The three storey rectory, described during the nineteenth century as ‘commodious’, has an elegant five-bay symmetrical front façade, sash windows and fine entrance doorway with Doric-styled portico that has changed little since it was built. As of 2024, the older range to the rear was used as an annexe with storage spaces.
GARDENS AND PARKLAND
Not highly detailed, Hodskinson’s 1783 map omits to show a building on the site of the rectory and the route of the main road leading north out of Saxmundham running along what is now Low Road and closer to the river in the area near the rectory than today. Coinciding with the building of the new rectory, two paths were diverted in the area near the church, possibly to allow the development of its surrounding gardens. Four years later a highways diversion order refers to new roads for Kelsale and Carlton. This is possibly when the road was moved further west to its present position allowing the creation of an area of pasture/parkland that would have opened-up the view in front of the house.
When the tithe map was drawn in 1839 gardens surrounded the house with the River Fromus flowing through the site. This separated the house site from an area of glebe land to the south, described in the tithe apportionment of 1843 as ‘part of lawn’ and ‘lawn in park’. The area was sub-divided into three sections. One beside the river was Kelsale glebe, with the remaining two nearest the present line of the road described as Carlton glebe. The distinction and line of separation between Kelsale and Carlton glebe adds weight to the suggestion that this was the route of the original road. A further southern section was not glebe but owned by Lt. Col. Henry Bence Bence, the owner of the Thorington estate and Lord of the Manor. This was also used by Lancelot as an extension to his small park and described in the apportionment as ‘Lawn in Part’. The main drive to the rectory passed through a field and woodland belts owned by Edmund Cooper as it made its way from the western road entrance, bridging the river before dividing to the south front of the house and northward to the stables, offices and large walled garden north-east of the rectory. A meadow to the north and large lawn to the east and south-east of the house was also Kelsale glebe. It had a shelterbelt of trees separating the rectory gardens from the churchyard and village street, with access to the church via a path that crossed the east lawn.
Visible from the rectory, Samuel Clouting copied its style when he enlarged an earlier building immediately south of the rectory lawns and on the opposite side of the river. This created a substantial home (Grade II) which later became The Eight Bells public house before reverting back to the private dwelling seen today.
The 1885 OS map gives more detail than the tithe map and shows a slightly irregular, rectangular walled garden to be close to the rear of the house and accessed by a path to its south-west corner. Its north wall protruded northward slightly along half of its length where buildings are shown. It is unclear if these were sheds or possibly lean-to glasshouses facing south. However the width of the protrusion is suggestive of the back sheds to an earlier lost wall. An orchard lay immediately north of this garden and there were a few trees in the slip garden separating the walled garden from the eastern lawn, where an avenue of trees lined a path to the church. The southern parkland is shown with narrow shelterbelts of mainly coniferous trees giving privacy from the road. A postcard dated c. 1904 shows the south and east elevations of the house clothed in climbers, mature pines lining the edge of the Fromus valley side and a path leading to a small, rickety, wooden footbridge over the river. A rectangular area in the parkland, probably an area used for sporting activities such as cricket or croquet, was on the opposite side of the river. This was also accessed off the main drive from the west that was flanked by a mix of coniferous and deciduous trees before crossing the river. A turning circle for carriages is shown to the south front of the house and the lawns immediately around the house were dotted with both coniferous and deciduous specimen trees.
The gardens and parkland changed little over the following century until the 1960s when the walled garden was demolished to make way for houses that eventually also covered the eastern lawn. However, the route of the nineteenth century path between the house and church survives with ornamental iron gates of unknown date at both the house and church ends.
During the twentieth century the parkland south of the river became the village recreation ground, possibly at the same time the gardens east of the house were lost to housing. A narrow belt of trees has been maintained along the recreation ground boundary with the road to the west. Although supplemented by later planting, some mature trees possibly dating to the late-nineteenth century survive. The entrance from the road to the west remains much as it was during the nineteenth century with the drive passing through a small belt of woodland and bridging the River Fromus to arrive at a turning circle surrounded by lawn in front of the house, or forking to the north where cart lodges replace the original stables.
The house was for sale in 2012 when it was said to have 0.8ha (2a) of grounds and once again in 2024 when sales particulars state it has slightly more at c. 1ha (2.43a). Today a number of mature nineteenth century trees, both coniferous and deciduous, are dotted around the site including a holm oak that is said to be at least four hundred years old.
SOURCES:
Alston, Leigh, Kelsale Court, Kelsale Heritage Assessment, 2015.
Bailey, Mark, Medieval Suffolk, An Economic and Social History, 1200–1500, 2007.
Bettley, James, ‘A Month in the Country, Revd Ernest Geldart at Kelsale, 1881’ in the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History, Vol. XLII Part 4, 2012.
Birch, Mel, Suffolk’s Ancient Sites, Historic Places, 2004.
Copinger, W. A., The Manors of Suffolk, Vol. 4, 1909.
Davy, David, Elisha, A Journal of Excursions Through the County of Suffolk, 1823–1844 reproduced by The Suffolk Records Society.
Hill, Thomas S., The Registers of the Parish of Thorington in the County of Suffolk, with notes of the Different Acts of Parliament referring to them…, 1884.
Hoppitt, Rosemary, Deer Parks of Suffolk 1086–1602, 2020.
Kelly’s Directory of Suffolk, 1853, 1922, 1939.
Page, Augustus, Supplement to the Suffolk Traveller [of J. Kirby] or Topographical and Genealogical Collections, Concerning That County, 1844.
Rowe, Frank, Kelsale-cum-Carlton Village History, 2nd edition, 2021.
Savills’ Sales Particulars, 2024, (accessed October 2024).
Scarfe, Norman, The Suffolk Landscape, 1972.
Suffolk Coastal District Council (now Suffolk Coastal D.C.), Kelsale Conservation Area Appraisal, Supplementary Planning Document, June 2018.
Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History, Excursions, Vol. IX Part 1, 1892.
Thorington Parish Records.
Thorington Parish Burial Records.
Warner, Peter M., The Origins of Suffolk, 1996.
Walford, Edward, County Families of the United Kingdom; or, Royal Manual of the Titled and Untitled Aristocracy of Great Britain and Ireland, 1886.
White, William, Directory of Suffolk, 1844, 1874.
https://landedfamilies.blogspot.com/2023/07/551-bence-of-thorington-hall-and.html (accessed November 2024).
Simon Knott, November 2012. http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/kelsale.html (accessed November 2024).
Census: 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911.
1783 Hodskinson’s Map of Suffolk in 1783.
1843 (surveyed 1839) tithe map and apportionment.
1885 (surveyed 1881 to 1883) Ordnance Survey map.
1905 (revised 1903) OS map.
1928 (revised 1925) OS map.
1951 (revised 1946 to 1948) OS map.
2023 Google Earth (© Google 2024).
Heritage Assets:
Suffolk Historic Environment Record (SHER): KCC 020, KCC 066.
Kelsale Court (Grade II), Historic England No: 1377240.
Church of St Mary and St Peter (Grade I), Historic England No: 1199020.
Lych Gate to Church of St Mary and St Peter, Church Lane (Grade II*), Historic England No: 1030641.
Guildhall (Grade II), Historic England No: 1030671.
The Eight Bells (Grade II), Historic England No: 285645.
Suffolk Record Office (now Suffolk Archives):
SRO (Ipswich) B/106/5/167, Highway Diversion Order for Kelsale, 1810.
SRO (Ipswich) B/106/5/169, Highway Diversion Order for Kelsale and Carlton, 1814.
SRO (Ipswich) K681/1/266/66, Postcard of rectory, c. 1904.
SRO (Ipswich) K681/1/266/52, Portrait photograph, early-twentieth century.
Suffolk Archives (The Hold, Ipswich) HD2833/1/SC245/9, Sales Particulars for Country House, Main Road, Kelsale’, 2012.
Site ownership: Private
Study written: January 2025
Type of Study: Desktop
Written by: Tina Ranft
Amended:
