Heveningham Hall

History

The first house on the site was built for William Heveningham in 1658 and it stood for about 60 years before being rebuilt by John Bence in 1714. Dutch-born banker Joshua Vanneck bought the estate in 1752 and acquired more land. until shortly after the death of William Vanneck, 5th Baron Huntingfield; however, the house fell into disrepair during the first half of the 20th century and was further damaged by a fire in the dining room in 1947.

On inheriting the property, Margite Wheeler offered the Hall to the nation in 1965. It was acquired in 1969 by English Heritage and was repaired and sold in 1977 (or 1981 It was bought by Abdul Amir Al-Ghazzi, an Iraqi businessman, via a Swiss-registered company with conditions that certain works would be carried out on the property. A 1991 debate in the House of Lords noted the deterioration of the hall, with one speaker describing it as being in 'a deplorable state', with concerns also being raised about the current ownership being impossible to determine due to use of bearer shares and that it was therefore impossible to verify whether renovations that were a condition of the 1981 sale were carried out. Following the death of Al-Ghazzi in 1991, the estate was left in the hands of the receiver. The house, together with 467 acre of land was soon put up for sale at £4.5 million by the Department for the Environment, despite a campaign to have it retained in public ownership as allowed by the terms of the 1981 sale.

After being on the market for 3 years, the hall and grounds were bought in 1994 by current owner and Foxtons founder Jon Hunt and his wife for use as a family home. By 2003 it was reported that Hunt had spent £1m on renovations to the hall. Since the 1990s the Hunts have also returned 510 acres of the grounds using Capability Brown's original – but never implemented – designs, working with the noted English landscape architect Kim Wilkie. Restoring Brown's vision required Wilkie and Hunt to remove modern features inconsistent with an 18th-century design. Numerous concrete roads, car parks, telegraph poles and farm outbuildings were either demolished or buried. Hunt has purchased additional land around the hall, including the 4,500 acre estate of Sibton Park, and is developing the whole area as Wilderness Reserve, which combines high-end holiday accommodation in a number of buildings with the rewilding of much of the land.

The estate

The estate features an orangery, which is Grade I listed in its own right, as well as a Grade II* listed temple.

The main entrance gates to the estate feature two lodges with pyramid roofs which are also Grade II* listed and are connected to the main house by an underground passage.

Events

The hall hosts an annual motorsport and classic car event since 2016, the Heveningham Hall Concours d'Elegance. The hall is also the location of the annual Heveningham Hall Country Fair, which raises money for local charity causes through the Heveningham Hall Country Fair Trust.

References

References

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2. (11 February 1970). "Mrs. Louise C. Timpson Dead; Former Duchess of Argyll, 65". The New York Times.
3. "Baroness Jeger". Hansard.
4. (1 July 1991). "Heveningham Hall". Hansard.
5. (30 June 1991). "Estate saved for nation up for sale". The Independent.
6. (6 December 2013). "Jon Hunt's Wilderness Reserve in Suffolk". Financial Times.
7. (August 2003). "Heveningham Hall".
8. "Suffolk's beautiful Blyth Valley".
9. Grice, Liz. (3 May 2012). "Kim Wilkie is Led By the Land". The Telegraph.
10. "Heveningham Hall Goes Wild". Ubbeston Parish, Past and Present.
11. {{NHLE
12. {{NHLE
13. {{NHLE
14. (2015). "The Buildings of England: Suffolk East". [[Yale University Press]].
15. "Heveningham Hall Concours d'Elegance 2017: picture special".
16. (7 July 2007). "Inside story of Heveningham Country Fair". East Anglian Daily Times.