The Manor

Reputedly built by the Marquis of Bristol for his mother as a Dower House at the beginning of the 19th Century (c 1804), the house formed part of the Hall Farm Estate. Extended in the 1830s, it was occupied by the Squire family, one of whom painted this view of the house, known as The Place, around 1845. 

It was acquired by the Church in 1855 and was used and named as The Rectory for the rest of the century, housing some distinguished clerics as well as local rectors.

As the wealth and influence of the Church waned in the 20th Century, such a large house could no longer be justified and in 1935 it became the property of Col. Cutlack, a director of a local brewery; and latterly of the Holloway and Parker families, both well known in business in Suffolk . Known during this time as The Manor, it was first modernised in 1935 and then again in the 1960s with the addition of a gardener/housekeeper's cottage and later the conversion of the kitchen garden to a swimming pool and the stables to extensive garaging. The property became separated from the farm when it left Church ownership and the farm has been owned until 1999 by the Goodchild family.

The Manor was listed Grade 2 in the 1980s.

Now owned by Rodney and Diana Knight, some of its 12 bedrooms are bathrooms and others form part of Diana's Orthodontic Practice visited by 100 patients and their families every week.

The Manor is regularly made available for social functions especially for the Church, thus maintaining its longstanding role in the local community.

Copyright 2000: R. Knight