Bylaugh Hall, also known as Bylaugh Park, is a country house situated in the village of Bylaugh

Bylaugh

Bylaugh is a village and civil parish in the Breckland district of Norfolk, England, about 6 miles north-east of East Dereham. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 65.-Buildings:...

 in Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

History

The estate was acquired by Sir John Lombe in 1796. There is some uncertainty regarding the exact nature of the transaction. The unsubstantiated traditional story is that he won it from the former owner, Richard Lloyd, in a card game, after Lloyd's butler drugged his wine, but a more prosaic explanation seems likely. Sir John died childless in 1817 and the estate passed to his brother Edward, together with a large sum of money left by Sir John in trust for the construction of a new mansion house.

After a long delay it was eventually necessary for the Court of Chancery

Court of Chancery

The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid the slow pace of change and possible harshness of the common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over all matters of equity, including trusts, land law, the administration of the estates of...

 to intervene and order the use of the trust funds for their appointed purpose, and the architects Charles Barry, Jr.

Charles Barry, Jr.

Charles Barry, Jr. was an English architect of the mid-late 19th century, and eldest son of Sir Charles Barry. Like his younger brother and fellow architect Edward Middleton Barry, Charles Jr. designed numerous buildings in London. He is particularly associated with works in the south London...

 and Robert Richardson Banks

Robert Richardson Banks

Robert Richardson Banks was a notable English architect of the mid 19th century who worked for many years in partnership with Charles Barry....

 were at length commissioned to design a suitable house. William Andrews Nesfield advised on the position of the house, and was responsible for laying out the grounds and gardens. The clock tower and surrounding buildings are vaguely reminiscent of the new Houses of Parliament

Palace of Westminster

The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...

 which were designed by Sir Charles Barry, Sr

Charles Barry

Sir Charles Barry FRS was an English architect, best known for his role in the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster in London during the mid-19th century, but also responsible for numerous other buildings and gardens.- Background and training :Born on 23 May 1795 in Bridge Street, Westminster...

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The house was completed in about 1851. Along with the Houses of Parliament, it was amongst the first buildings ever to employ steel

Steel

Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

 girders in the supporting structure. The exterior stonework, including the balustrades and the terrace

Terrace (gardening)

In gardening, a terrace is an element where a raised flat paved or gravelled section overlooks a prospect. A raised terrace keeps a house dry and provides a transition between the hard materials of the architecture and softer ones of the garden.-History:...

 walling, are of magnesian limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

. At this time the estate was the third largest in Norfolk, containing over 19,000 acres (77 km²).

During the Second World War, Bylaugh Hall was requisitioned by the RAF as the headquarters of 100 (Bomber Support) Group

No. 100 Group RAF

No. 100 Group was a special duties group within RAF Bomber Command.It was formed on 11 November 1943 to consolidate the increasingly complex business of electronic warfare and countermeasures within one organisation. The group was responsible for the development, operational trial and use of...

.

By 1950, the house was in disrepair. It was stripped of its lead and interior fittings, and abandoned.

Present use

The Hall (as of 1 July 2009) has been the subject of ongoing financial problems, causing the repossession of sections of the building and the apparent loss of deposits by a number of customers.