Three Norfolk Country Houses
Costessey, Reymerston and Buckenham Tofts… they were all magnificent mansions, but only one now survives
The United Kingdom has, over the centuries, seen many handsome large houses or halls built for the gentry. Norfolk has had its share of these but many have either disappeared or been converted into other uses such as hotels, offices or flats. However, a few have left an interesting story behind and might actually have a tenuous link with each other as is the case with the three houses in this article.
First let us look at Costessey Hall not far from the city of Norwich which was built around 1564 and further enlarged from 1826. This once large and somewhat Tudor style building with its castellated towers suffered years of change both in the building itself and with its owners. The Roman Catholic family, the Jerninghams, were given the Costessey estate by Queen Mary Tudor and a baronetcy by James I. In 1762, the Jerninghams, after the death of the 4th Earl of Stafford, inherited the ruins of Stafford Castle and the Stafford Barony. By 1825 George Jerningham had become the 8th Lord Stafford and the following year the reconstruction of Costessey Hall began; however, by 1836 it seems that the money had run out.
Prior to the visit in November 1866 of the Prince and Princess of Wales the hall had to be redecorated. Eventually, in 1913 Costessey Hall was put up for sale with many parts of the interior not finished. Sir Henry Jerningham failed to sell the building so he had to dispose of all the furniture, and with the beginning of the Great War in 1914 the empty hall and the large grounds were used by the government as an infantry training ground. The house was demolished in 1925 and all that is now left is the remnants of the belfry block, just a sad reminder of a once handsome building.
The surrounding land is now a beautiful and well-used golf course, Costessey Park Golf Club, where golfers can play over the rolling greens and maybe walk over the same ground trodden by the Prince and Princess of Wales in the days of Queen Victoria.
Records show that a number of poachers lived in the area and many would attempt to catch their game on the Costessey Estate. If caught, as a number were in the 1800s, they were sentenced to death, although sometimes these sentences were commuted to deportation to Van Diemen’s Land.
Another large hall that had a sad fate is one that stood in the Norfolk village of Buckenham Tofts, which is now part of the 30,000-acre area known as Stanta — Stanford Training Area. Stanford was one of six villages that in 1942 were taken over by the government for the training of ground troops to fight the Nazi threat and take part in the D-day landings. The villagers were gathered together on one day and told that they had just six weeks to pack up and leave. The hall was emptied and left at the mercy of the troops, although they were told that the villages’ churches were not to be touched.
All that remains of Buckenham Tofts Hall is part of the stables, part of a high wall that surrounded the gardens, and a sad looking set of steps that may have led up to the house. Originally built in the late 17th century during the reign of Charles II, it was then rebuilt in the 18th century. It became
another handsome building, later owned by the 10th Lord Petre in 1803, which was when the stables were constructed. Old photographs show the hall surrounded by gardens and statues and nearby a river and large lake; the latter is still in existence and beautiful to see. Finally, the hall was affected by the takeover of the military, became derelict and was demolished in the 1950s, possibly after a fire.
Although the churches of the villages were partly protected, they soon started to deteriorate and it is now thanks to English Heritage that they are being restored to their former glory, a task that will take time and money. The exteriors of the churches appear quite good, but the interiors, in some cases, are poor.
Although Buckenham Tofts Hall is no longer there, it is still worth contacting Stanta to obtain permission to visit the area; this is usually given to organised groups or if someone has family connections with the long-gone villages. Further information is available from West Tofts Camp, Thetford, Norfolk IP26 5EP. Tours are dependent on whether there are military exercises going on at the time.
Finally, my third Norfolk mansion, Reymerston Hall, which again is linked with the military, this time with the RAF, as well as a well-known film star and a flying machine.
Born in Ely, Cambridgeshire, in 1916, Ken Wallis grew up to develop a love of flying. He gained his pilot’s licence in 1937, with his first solo flight being in a de Havilland Gipsy Moth. When the war came in 1939 he was soon in the RAF and flying 28 bombing missions over Germany, despite the fact that he had poor eyesight, having cheated at the test to gain permission to fly.
After his time in the Royal Air Force, by which time he was a Wing Commander, Ken turned his attention and skills to the autogyro which had become his passion. Between 1968 and 2002 he gained 34 world records, and in 1975 flew the length of the United Kingdom in six hours 25 minutes. Ken was an inventor of many things, some well before similar devices were designed by others and sold to the public. Ken did not actually invent the autogyro (it was the idea of a Spanish engineer named Juan de la Cierva in 1921 who called it an autogiro). Ken built his own autogyro, a smaller version of the autogiro in 1960, apparently “borrowing” the gears from his daughter’s bicycle! He lived at Reymerston Hall which stands in large grounds, ideal for Ken to fly his 40 autogyros. In 1967, piloting his autogyro “Little Nellie”, he was Sean Connery’s stunt pilot in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice.
Although Reymerston was built around 1781 and had a number of tenants over the decades, it only gained public interest when Ken Wallis, who died in 2013 at the age of 97, showed the world his autogyro and his skill and daring in flying it. If you ever saw him at an airshow you will know what I mean.