IN THE 1974 BOOK The Destruction of the Country House the list of Suffolk houses lost in the century commencing in 1875 contained thirty-seven names. Eric Sandon also listed thirty-seven houses in his book Suffolk Houses, published in 1977. In G. Worsley, England's Lost Houses the list for Suffolk contains the names of forty-three houses either demolished or destroyed by fire in the twentieth century. The present book gives an account of forty houses. Some readers may wish to know why some houses listed in earlier works have been omitted from this book and others not previously listed are included here.

The 1974 list omitted Barking Hall, Holton Hall and Downham Hall of whose former existence the authors of The Destruction of the Country House were presumably unaware. Included in that list was Hurts Hall, a house built by Samuel Wyatt at the beginning of the nineteenth century and destroyed by fire ninety years later, when it was replaced by a new house which still survives. Also included were Nettlestead High Hall, which N. Pevsner in The Buildings of England: Suffolk (London 1961) described as ‘clearly only a fragment’, although Sandon states that he could find no evidence for this assertion. Theberton Manor is included in the 1974 list, apparently erroneously, as the Old Manor House in Theberton is still standing: its inclusion seems to have arisen from confusion with Theberton Hall, part of which had been demolished. Thistleton Hall, which is also listed, was demolished in 1955 but falls outside the scope of this work as this once-large timbered house had long ceased to be anything other than a farmhouse prior to being closed up during World War II, when it was within the boundary of Debach airfield. Kenton Hall (a remnant of a very large timbered house on a moated site) and Wamil Hall, both of which suffered damage by fire in the twentieth century, were both rehabilitated.

Sandon's list covered a period of two hundred years and included houses demolished before 1900 or only partly demolished (one of which, Tostock Place, had only lost one wing, the rest of the house having survived and been converted into a number of residential units) and Wamil Hall. It omitted Acton Place, Barking, Carlton, Chediston, Henham, Holton and Hunston Halls, Drinkstone Park, Easton Park and Stoke Park.