Spexhall Manor

Spexhall Parish

(previously Wash Farm and Manor Farm)

Parish: SPEXHALL
District Council: EAST SUFFOLK (previously Waveney)
TM 380 793
Not open to the public

An undated early-twentieth century postcard showing the remodelled and enlarged south front of the house with garden terracing beside the moat. The photograph appears to have been taken from the causeway between the moat and garden canal. (In a private collection)

In an isolated position in the dispersed settlement of Spexhall and c. 0.8km (0.5mls) south of St Peter’s Church (Grade II*), Spexhall Manor (Grade II) is believed to be on the site of the ancient Burghard’s Manor and is c. 1.6km (1mls) north-west of Halesworth. On clay soil it stands c. 25m (82ft) above sea level on a gently sloping valley site beside a tributary of the River Blyth.

By 1837 the original manor house had become a farmhouse owned by the Girling family. The tithe map of that year shows the north and west arms of the partly-moated house with a sharply-defined long, thin body of water, not unlike a garden canal, extending off the west arm but separated by a causeway leading from the house to an orchard. Garden paths were south of the house and adjacent to the canal with farm buildings to the south-east, a large irregular pond east of the house and the main drive coming from the same direction. It stayed in the Girling family for most of the nineteenth century, passing to the Whittings, who were living there in 1891 when it was called Wash Farm. The census of that year calls the house a ‘mansion’, suggesting a successful farming family whose status had risen during the preceding years.

Named as Wash Farm on the 1883 OS map, this shows the partly-moated house, canal-like pond to the south, irregular ponds to the east and farmyard to the south-east. (Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland https://maps.nls.uk/index.html)
The 1928 OS map showing the house, gardens and entrance lodge to the east. The gardens were divided into a series of areas with perimeter paths and a long garden terrace to the south of the house with lawn beyond. What may be a building, possibly an orangery, straddles the separate gardens to the south of the house. (Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland https://maps.nls.uk/index.html)

Having gone through a period when it changed its name to Manor Farm, at the beginning of the twentieth century it was bought by Edmund Percy Calvert and his wife the Hon. Susan May Dutton Calvert, a descendent of the Barons Sherbourne and Thomas Howard, sixteenth Earl of Suffolk. The Calverts rented Rookery Park in Yoxford from 1906 to 1908 while work took place to rebuild their Spexhall property, at which time it lost its farm buildings and was renamed Spexhall Manor. With sixteenth century features at its core the house was extensively restored and enlarged to designs by the London architect Walter Sarel (1873–1941) who was known for remodelling sixteenth and seventeenth century houses in the Arts and Crafts style and being influenced by the garden design principles of Gertrude Jekyll with whom he worked on at least seven projects. Sarel saw gardens as extensions to houses and was celebrated for his garden terraces, buildings, paths and bridges and Italianate features. These are shown in a number of photographs taken sometime after the building work had been completed and on the 1928 OS map, suggesting they were part of his work for the Calverts.

The Arts and Crafts-style Spexhall Manor Lodge in 2014. (© Keith Evans. Reproduced under Creative Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0)
The northern entrance drive with a view across arable fields to the densely-wooded western extension to the parkland. (© 2023 Street View)

By 1980 Spexhall Manor was for sale in an area of c. 24ha (59a) including the house, outbuildings, stable block, formal gardens and an Arts and Crafts style entrance lodge, built around the same time as the house was remodelled and likely to also be the work of Walter Sarel. Since then the house has been substantially enlarged and stands surrounded by a small park created from arable fields. There are scattered clumps and shelterbelts of trees plus two large irregularly-shaped lakes within a large densely-wooded western extension to the parkland area with numerous winding paths. The arms of the moat, canal and southern garden terrace survive, as do some other elements of the early-twentieth century formal gardens including garden buildings and perimeter paths. A crinkle-crankle wall of unknown date that does not appear on the 1928 OS map screens these from the drive and, although it does not feature on maps up to the mid-twentieth century, is possibly an element of the earlier formal Italianate gardens. A new garden with sinuous paths and hard landscaping features has been developed north of the northern arm of the moat and the old orchard west of the canal has been laid to lawn with a few regularly-spaced trees.

An aerial view of the park surrounding Spexhall Manor in 2023 showing how it has been substantially expanded since the end of the nineteenth century. (Google. Imagery © Bluesky, CNES / Airbus, Getmapping plc, Infoterra Lts & Bluesky, Maxar Technologies, Map data © 2023)

SOURCES:
Birch, Mel, Suffolk’s Ancient Sites Historic Places, 2004.
Kenworthy-Brown, Burke’s and Savills Guide to Country Houses; Vol. III, East Anglia, 1981.
Gillilan, Lesley, ‘Unearth a living history in the garden’ in The Telegraph, 4 May 2011 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/westcountry/8490118/Unearth-a-living-history-in-the-garden.html (accessed January 2017).
Suffolk Records Society, Volume 1; Volume 4, 1962.
Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History, Proceedings Vol. XXXIV, Part 4, 1980 ‘Excursions 1979’ information from Judith Middleton-Stewart.
White, William, History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Suffolk, 1855, 1874.

http:www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk/online/content/sherbourne1784.htm (accessed January 2019).
Suffolk Landscape Character Assessment http://www.suffolklandscape.org.uk/landscapes/Rolling-valley-claylands.aspx (accessed January 2019).

Census: 1841, 1851, 1861, 1891, 1901.

1837 (surveyed 1838) tithe map and apportionment.
1883 (surveyed 1882 to 1883) Ordnance Survey map.
1905 (revised 1903) OS map.
1928 (revised 1925) OS map.
1951 (revised 1947) OS map.
2021 Google aerial map (Imagery © Bluesky, CNES / Airbus, Getmapping plc, Infoterra Lts & Bluesky, Maxar Technologies, Map data © 2021).

Heritage Assets:
Suffolk Historic Environment Record (SHER): SPX 012.
Spexhall Manor (Grade II), Historic England No. 1283610.
Church of St Peter (Grade II*), Historic England No: 1032046.

Historic England Advice Notice for The Rectory, The Street, Compton. Case No: 1433739, 27 April 2017.

Suffolk Record Office (now Suffolk Archives):
SRO (Ipswich) K681/1/415/4. Photograph of rear of Manor before alterations in 1908.
SRO (Ipswich) HD2448. Numerous photographs dating from pre-1908, 1910, 1928, 1930 in the Peter North Collection.
SRO (Ipswich) HD2448/6/56/106. View of front pond with Edmund Calvert c. 1910.
SRO (Ipswich) HD2448/5/1/H. Series of photographs including building work at the Manor, front view and Mrs Calvert picnicking in the garden in the early-twentieth century.
SRO (Ipswich) HD 2448/6/56/102. View of the Italianate gardens, 1930.
SRO (Ipswich) HD2448/5/1/G. Photographs of the Calvert family at the Rookery and Spexhall Manor c. 1908.
SRO (Lowestoft) 1300/115/1. Photograph of Spexhall Manor, timber framed building, c. 1960.
SRO (Lowestoft) 1117/378/3. Sales particulars for Spexhall Manor, Wash Lane, 1980s.

Site ownership: Private

Study written: March 2023

Type of Study: Desktop

Written by: Tina Ranft

Amended: