Kimberley Hall, Wymondham, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

Kimberley Hall and park have a long and complex history. The early medieval manor house, known as Falstoff Hall, stood within the moated enclosure which still survives in Falstoff Wood, in the south of the present park. After the marriage of Sir John Wodehouse to Sir Thomas Falstoff's daughter and heiress in about 1400, a new house, known as Wodehouse Tower, was constructed within the deer park on a large moated site some 900 metres to the west. This house was occupied by the Wodehouse family until 1641, when Sir Phillip Wodehouse purchased Downham Manor from Richard Buxton, which adjoined the Kimberley Estate to the east, beyond the River Tiffey in Wymondham parish. Wodehouse took up residence here; Wodehouse Tower was abandoned and demolished in 1659. Sir John Wodehouse, the fourth Baronet Wodehouse, inherited the family estate in 1669 at the age of two; by 1700 he was considering the possibility of erecting a new hall. This was to be on yet another new site, back once more in Kimberley parish and beside the deer park, about 700 metres north of the site of Wodehouse Tower. Two unexecuted designs for the surrounding landscape survive, one drawn by Samuel Gilpen (Norfolk Records Office) and the other by George London (private collection). The new hall was eventually erected in Downham parish from 1712 onwards to a design by the architect William Talman, surrounded by small enclosed gardens and a 35 hectare deer park. During the following decades Sir John's son, Sir Armine, commissioned Thomas Prowse to add towers to the Hall whilst outside he began to deformalise the landscape and to make a small lake. In 1762 he commissioned Lancelot Brown (1716-83) to remodel the landscape by developing the lake, a Broad Water, perimeter belts, and sweeping parkland. Sir Armine's son, another Sir John, called Brown back in 1778 to give further advice. Sir John's marriage to the heiress of John Norris allowed them to continue the development of Kimberley: by the late 18th century a pleasure ground had been added to link the Hall with the walled garden and the park extended to the south. An estate map of 1827 (NRO) shows the park had been expanded to cover around 275 hectares and had gained three lodged entrances. In 1835 the architect Anthony Salvin (1790-1881) added curving colonnades to the Hall, making a link with the flanking wings. Sir John was created the first Earl of Kimberley in 1866 and about this time the formal gardens were updated, possibly by the designer William Andrews Nesfield (Country Life 1993). Three successive earls made few changes to the Hall or landscape and the fourth Earl, Lord John Wodehouse, succeeded to the title in 1941. During the war the Hall was occupied by troops, after which it was extensively modernised and altered in 1951 by the architect James Fletcher-Watson. The estate was sold into divided ownership in 1958 and the Hall and park purchased by Mr R Buxton. The site remains (1999) in divided private ownership.