Rendlesham Hall

Rendlesham Hall was a large manor house in the village of Rendlesham in Suffolk.

The original house as it looked in 1818

History

The hall was built in the pointed style in 1780[1] and two lodges, Woodbridge Lodge and Ivy Lodge, were added in 1790.[2] The hall was acquired by Peter Thellusson, a wealthy banker, in the name of his son, in 1796.[3] The son, the 1st Lord Rendlesham, who went into politics as a Member of Parliament, occupied the hall.[3]

The hall was destroyed by fire in 1830[3] and was rebuilt in Jacobean style to a design by William Burn.[3] The works, which were carried out by Lucas Brothers[4] were completed in 1870.[3] The new building had eight reception rooms, including a ballroom, a conservatory, twenty-five principal bedrooms with dressing rooms, nine secondary and thirteen servants' bedrooms, five bathrooms, eleven lavatories and extensive domestic offices.[3] There were twenty-five acres of grounds with tennis and croquet lawns, and a 4-acre (16,000 m2) walled kitchen garden in a park which extended to 250 acres (1.0 km2).[3]

The 5th Lord Rendlesham died in 1911, and the hall was put up for sale in 1920, but there were no bidders.[3] In 1923 the hall was sold for use as a sanitorium, in which use it remained until the Second World War, when it was occupied by the British Army.[3] For over 80 years the hall had played a major role in the social life of Suffolk, but after World War II it stood empty, and it was finally demolished in 1949.[3]

Images
  • The east end of the house
  • The north end, showing the main entrance
  • The north end
  • The south end
  • The west end, showing the greenhouse
  • Rendlesham Hall c. 1800

References
  1. A Vision of Britain through time University of Portsmouth
  2. The Ivy Lodge at Rendlesham Hall
  3. Our vanishing country houses
  4. Charles Thomas Lucas at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

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