MOULTON PADDOCKS, UNLIKE MOST OF THE LOST COUNTRY HOUSES OF SUFFOLK, WAS NOT ORIGINALLY THE HOUSE AT THE HUB OF A LARGE COUNTRY ESTATE. Situated between the village of Moulton and Newmarket, it was, in the middle of the nineteenth century, a small house with only a small acreage of land. Its expansion into an estate with a substantial country house in over 1,000 acres arose from its proximity to Newmarket and its development as a racing establishment.

At the time of the enclosure of Moulton in 1841 the property, then known as Fidget Hall, with sixty-four acres was owned by George Samuel Ford. A year later at redemption of the tithes the property, now with a further eight acres, was owned by William Webber. By 1850 it had passed into the hands of Sir Robert Pigot, was known as Moulton Paddocks and was described as his ‘occasional seat’. In 1868, when Col. Frederick Daniel Fryer occupied the house, it was again described as Fidget Hall, but by the early 1870s the old name finally seems to have been dropped in favour of Moulton Paddocks, presumably reflecting the owner's interest in racing. The next thirty years saw a number of owners; by 1879 Col. Fryer's son, by 1888 Lord Gerard and then George Alexander Baird following whose death the property was put up for sale by auction in 1895. Having failed to sell in 1895 the estate was marketed again in 1898, and in the next year was bought by Sir Ernest Cassel.

Cassel was born in Cologne in 1852, the son of a banker. His initial training in his home city was followed by periods with banking businesses in Liverpool and Paris. Moving to a London financial house in 1870 at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, he established the foundations of what was to become an immense fortune. Alongside his work for his employers, Bischoffsheim and Goldschmidt, he engaged in ventures on his own account and in 1884 became wholly independent. He became one of the wealthiest and most powerful figures in the City of London, and at his death left over £7 million, having reputedly given over £2 million to charities during his lifetime. Cassel was a confidant of King Edward VII who was a frequent visitor to Moulton Paddocks.