Mind Your Manors

The mark of time is visible on every part of these three historic houses

- Penny Churchill

Writing in Country Life (February 23, 1967) about the restoration of grade i-listed the Old Hall, Barnham Broom, near Wymondham, south Norfolk, the architectural historian Mark Girouard highlighted the situation faced at that time by some of East Anglia’s oldest, but least-known small manor houses: ‘Few, if any, are lived in by the families who originally built them: they are silent witnesses of a vanished race of small country gentry who were absorbed or bought out by grander and richer families. Many of them became farmhouses, and remain so to this day… Some Property market Penny Churchill of them have been done up and become gentry houses again… Others have been abandoned, and stand with sagging roofs and gaping windows in the desolate remains of their gardens.

Barnham Broom was for many years in the last class, and had, in fact, virtually been given up in despair by preservation societies, although they still doggedly tried to find a buyer. So it was very satisfying to find that it had been bought in the nick of time by Mr and Mrs A. r. Hawker and restored with both care and style—the latter a quality not always found in those who are interested in old buildings.’

the original Tudor building was erected in 1514 by Sir Edward Chamberlayne, who accompanied Henry Viii to the Field of the Cloth of gold in 1520. in 1614, the house was remodelled by Sir Edward’s great-grandson, also Edward, who installed the magnificent plasterwork ceiling in the first-floor great Chamber, now the drawing room. He may also have remodelled the rest of the house, which incorporates much of the earlier 16th century building, although lack of funds probably inhibited a full-scale renovation.