Poslingford House | Suffolk's Historic Gardens & Parks Inventory

(previously known as Shadow Bush and Poslingford Park)

Parish: POSLINGFORD
District Council: WEST SUFFOLK (previously St Edmundsbury)
TL 778 481
Not open to the public

*An undated drawing of the east front of Poslingford House, probably drawn soon after Colonel Thomas Weston built his new mansion* c. 1820. (by kind permission of Bury Past & Present Society (https://www.burypastandpresent.org.uk/) Spanton Jarman Collection K505/2236)

In an undulating landscape on the Suffolk clayland plateau, Poslingford House (Grade II) is a substantial early-nineteenth century country house built on the site of an earlier manor house. It is in an isolated position c. 1.5km (1ml) north of Poslingford village and c. 5.5km (3.5mls) north-east of Clare and sits in a small park. The property was the main residence for the Shadow Bush Estate, named after Shadowbush Wood, the ancient woodland lying to the east, and has also been known as Shadow Bush and Poslingford Park.

After marrying the Golding family heiress, who were the original owners of the Shadow Bush Estate, Colonel Thomas Weston built a new mansion c. 1820 that he called Poslingford House. After his death in 1844, the c. 71.6ha (177a) estate was put up for sale when it was described as having a ‘recently built mansion screened from view, with double coach house, walled garden, greenhouse and farmhouse’. It was bought by Samuel Amy Severne who renamed it Poslingford Park. In 1864 he married Sarah Boddicott, daughter of the late J. Yelloly, Esq. of Cavendish Hall. It stayed in the Severne family for the rest of the nineteenth century. By 1911 it was the property of Lt. Col. George R. Darley who reverted to using the name Poslingford House. After World War II it was sold and it stayed in the same family until 2016, the house having been substantially restored after suffering major fire damage in 1963 and then in 1973.

Although unclear if it is a true representation, an early print (see above) probably shows the Poslingford House as built by Colonel Thomas Weston c. 1820, a neo-classical house with central doorway and gabled attics. Access into a small brick entrance courtyard is shown through double wrought iron gates, the gateway with piers surmounted by the heads of dragon-like statues with flames coming out of their mouths. During the time it was owned by the Severne family a service wing had been added to the north and the courtyard swept away to give open access to parkland that was dotted with mature freestanding trees.

Believed to be the work of Elizabeth Severne, a drawing of Poslingford House dated between 1857 and 1870. It shows a service wing had been added and the entrance courtyard swept away to give open views of a lawn giving way to parkland dotted with mature specimen trees. (© State Library Victoria, Australia. Image H93.29/172. Taken from an album of drawings, watercolours, greeting cards etc.)

Always central in its park, the map accompanying the 1840 tithe apportionment shows the house set back west of the road with a sweeping in-and-out drive with two entrance lodges, one drive to the south and the other curving north-eastward close to Shadowbush Farm. The principle elevation of the house, which sat in an oval-shaped enclosure of pleasure grounds, faces east towards the parkland studded with freestanding trees. Views to the west looked over a more formal lawned area with parkland beyond. By 1885 a belt of trees encircled the pleasure gardens to the south, west and north, although within twenty years its western side had been opened up to give views of further parkland. Lying c. 200m (656ft) north of the house, the coach house and attached walled garden lay immediately west of Shadowbush Farm. Not shown on the earlier tithe map, by 1885 the walled garden had acquired a lean-to glasshouse along its northern wall, backing onto the coach house.

The 1885 OS map showing Poslingford House lying centrally within its small park with north and south drives and a roughly circular pleasure gardens enclosure surrounded by a belt of trees, except to the east where it is open giving views across the eastern parkland. (Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland https://maps.nls.uk/index.html)

The 1905 OS map showing little had changed in the park and pleasure gardens of Poslingford House since 1885 except the opening up of the shelterbelt of trees to the west to give views across the parkland beyond. (Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland https://maps.nls.uk/index.html)

Little has changed in the park and gardens since the house was built. Mature trees are scattered across the parkland, with a shelterbelt of trees planted along the road to the east during the twentieth century giving complete privacy to the house. Today only the tree-lined south drive is used for access to the house with the ruins of the old lodge still clearly visible. The layout of the pleasure gardens has remained very much as it was during the nineteenth century, although a swimming pool has been added west of the house. However, the coach house and walled garden were converted to form a residential property in the 2010s with the old north-east entrance, now without its lodge, used to access the property. Around the same time the farm buildings were also converted for residential use.

*Aerial view of the house and parkland*. (© 2022 Google Earth)

*The main entrance to Poslingford House in 2022 showing the ruins of the lodge to the left of the gate. Glimpses of the tree-lined drive can be seen in the background*. (© 2022 Google Street View)

SOURCES:
Bettley, J, Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Suffolk: West, 2015.
Birch, Mel, Suffolk’s Ancient Sites Historic Places, 2004.
Copinger, W. A., The Manors of Suffolk, Vol. 5, 1910.
Kelly’s Directory of Suffolk, 1892, 1922.
White, William, Directory of Suffolk, 1844, 1855.

Beccles & Bungay Weekly News 28 June 1864, Samuel Amy Severne marries Sarah Boddicott (https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/SFK/BecclesandBungay/ April_June_1864 accessed January 2019).
Sudbury Post newspaper archive September 4th 1844, (http://www.foxearth.org.uk/index.html accessed January 2019).
Sales particulars 2016 (unknown source, 2016).

Census: 1851, 1861, 1891, 1911.

1841 (surveyed) tithe map and 1840 apportionment.
1885 (surveyed 1884) Ordnance Survey map.
1905 (revised 1902) OS map.
2023 Google aerial map (Imagery © Bluesky, CNES / Airbus, Getmapping plc, Infoterra Lts & Bluesky, Maxar Technologies, Map data © 2023).

Heritage Assets:
Suffolk Historic Environment Record (SHER): PSG 005, PSG 011, PSG 019.
Poslingford House (Grade II), Historic England No: 1265342.
Historic Building Record OASIS REF: suffolkc1-79643. Leigh Alston. ‘The Coach House, Poslingford House’, 2010. Unpublished document.

Suffolk Record Office (now Suffolk Archives):
SRO (Bury St Edmunds) HD 1778/7. Miscellaneous deeds of the Golding and Weston families, 15531553: Thomas Goldyng de Poslingford, gent.
SRO (Bury St Edmunds) HD 1778/7/1. Messuage called Stonehall or Stonehowse, with lands in Clare, and elsewhere in Suffolk, and other counties. Conveyance by letters patent from the Crown to Thomas Goldyng de Poslingford, gent and George Goldyng de London, gent, 1553.
SRO (Bury St Edmunds) HD 1778/6/2. Thomas Weston gent of Dublin, 1797.
SRO (Bury St Edmunds) HD 1778/2/6. As administrator of the estate of the lunatic, the estate of Thomas Golding transferred to Thomas Weston through his wife Mary who was next of kin and sole heir, 1832.
SRO (Bury St Edmunds) HD 1778/6/5. Sales particulars of Shadowbush Estate, the property of the late Col. Weston Esq.,18 September 1844.
London Metropolitan Archive, City of London MS 11936/551/1244464. Insurance records of Sun Fire Office including Thomas Weston of Poslingford Park, 1 February 1837.

Site ownership: Private

Study written: April 2023

Type of Study: Desktop

Written by: Tina Ranft

Amended: October 2025