Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Map of Lost Country Houses in Suffolk
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Glossary of Architectural Terms
- Introduction: The Social and Economic Background
- Country House Losses in Suffolk – An Overview
- Acton Place Demolished 1825 and 1960
- Assington Hall Destroyed by Fire 1957
- Barking Hall Demolished 1926
- Barton Hall Destroyed by Fire 1914
- Boulge Hall Demolished 1955
- Bramford Hall Demolished 1956
- Branches Park Demolished 1957
- Bredfield House Demolished 1950
- Brome Hall Demolished c. 1958
- Campsea Ashe High House Demolished 1953
- Carlton Hall Destroyed by Fire 1941
- Cavenham Hall Demolished 1949
- Chediston Hall Demolished 1955
- Downham Hall Demolished 1925
- Drinkstone Park Demolished 1951
- Easton Park Demolished 1923
- Edwardstone Hall Demolished 1952
- Flixton Hall Demolished 1952/3
- Fornham Hall Demolished 1951
- Hardwick House Demolished 1926/7
- Henham Hall Demolished 1953/4
- Hobland Hall Damaged by Fire 1961, The Reinstated Ground Floor Demolished 2002
- Holton Hall, Holton St Peter Demolished 1957
- Hunston Hall Destroyed by Fire 1917
- Livermere Hall Demolished 1923
- The Manor House, Mildenhall Demolished 1934
- Moulton Paddocks Demolished 1950
- Oakley Park, Otherwise Hoxne Hall Demolished 1923
- Ousden Hall Demolished 1955
- The Red House, Ipswich Demolished 1937
- Redgrave Hall Demolished — The Georgian Building 1947, The Tudor Building 1970
- Rendlesham Hall Demolished 1949
- Rougham Hall Ruined by Bombing in 1940
- Rushbrooke Hall Destroyed by Fire During Demolition 1961
- Stoke Park Demolished c. 1930
- Sudbourne Hall Demolished 1951
- Tendring Hall Demolished 1954
- Thorington Hall Demolished 1949
- Thornham Hall Partly Demolished 1938, Partly Destroyed by Fire 1954
- Ufford Place Demolished 1956
- Appendix
- Notes to the Text
- Bibliography
- Index of Names
Downham Hall Demolished 1925
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 March 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Map of Lost Country Houses in Suffolk
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Glossary of Architectural Terms
- Introduction: The Social and Economic Background
- Country House Losses in Suffolk – An Overview
- Acton Place Demolished 1825 and 1960
- Assington Hall Destroyed by Fire 1957
- Barking Hall Demolished 1926
- Barton Hall Destroyed by Fire 1914
- Boulge Hall Demolished 1955
- Bramford Hall Demolished 1956
- Branches Park Demolished 1957
- Bredfield House Demolished 1950
- Brome Hall Demolished c. 1958
- Campsea Ashe High House Demolished 1953
- Carlton Hall Destroyed by Fire 1941
- Cavenham Hall Demolished 1949
- Chediston Hall Demolished 1955
- Downham Hall Demolished 1925
- Drinkstone Park Demolished 1951
- Easton Park Demolished 1923
- Edwardstone Hall Demolished 1952
- Flixton Hall Demolished 1952/3
- Fornham Hall Demolished 1951
- Hardwick House Demolished 1926/7
- Henham Hall Demolished 1953/4
- Hobland Hall Damaged by Fire 1961, The Reinstated Ground Floor Demolished 2002
- Holton Hall, Holton St Peter Demolished 1957
- Hunston Hall Destroyed by Fire 1917
- Livermere Hall Demolished 1923
- The Manor House, Mildenhall Demolished 1934
- Moulton Paddocks Demolished 1950
- Oakley Park, Otherwise Hoxne Hall Demolished 1923
- Ousden Hall Demolished 1955
- The Red House, Ipswich Demolished 1937
- Redgrave Hall Demolished — The Georgian Building 1947, The Tudor Building 1970
- Rendlesham Hall Demolished 1949
- Rougham Hall Ruined by Bombing in 1940
- Rushbrooke Hall Destroyed by Fire During Demolition 1961
- Stoke Park Demolished c. 1930
- Sudbourne Hall Demolished 1951
- Tendring Hall Demolished 1954
- Thorington Hall Demolished 1949
- Thornham Hall Partly Demolished 1938, Partly Destroyed by Fire 1954
- Ufford Place Demolished 1956
- Appendix
- Notes to the Text
- Bibliography
- Index of Names
Summary
DOWNHAM HALL STOOD ON LOW GROUND ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE LITTLE OUSE RIVER, three miles from Brandon in the village of Santon Downham, a parish created by the merger of Santon across the river in Norfolk and Downham in Suffolk. In 1668 the village was subject to what was described as a ‘sand-flood’, when a wave of sand (believed to have originated near Lakenheath) overwhelmed the village where ‘many houses were overthrown and buried, and their pastures and meadows which for so small a town were considerable were over-run and destroyed’.
In the late Middle Ages the village was held partly by the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds and partly by the Priory of Ixworth. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries the manor was granted to Sir Thomas Kytson. From the middle of the seventeenth century Downham Hall was owned by the Wright family. Thomas Wright's house had twelve hearths in 1674. The last member of his family to own it was Ann Wright from whom the estate was acquired in 1778 by Charles Sloane, first Earl Cadogan (of the second creation). He died in 1807 and the estate subsequently, in 1830, was bought by Lord William John Frederick Powlett, later Duke of Cleveland. On his death in 1864 the estate was left for the use of his widow, Caroline, a daughter of the first Earl of Lonsdale, but it was put on the market in 1870.
The purchaser was Edward Mackenzie of Fawley Court near Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire. Edward Mackenzie's father was a Scottish-born engineer and the family had been heavily involved in canal and railway ventures. It was, no doubt, from these that their wealth derived. Downham became the residence of Edward Mackenzie's second son Edward Phillipe who also had property in Kirkcudbright. Edward Mackenzie bought the Downham estate (which included the Home and three other farms) of 5,921 acres for £81,500. His elder son William inherited the property with Edward Phillipe having the right to live there as long as he wished.
THEWRIGHT family's original house was replaced by, or remodelled as, a Georgian building in the late eighteenth century either by the last Wright owner or more probably after Earl Cadogan's acquisition of what was then the 3,134-acre estate.
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- Lost Country Houses of Suffolk , pp. 58 - 60Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2010