Hengrave Hall
Encyclopedia
Hengrave Hall is a Tudor manor house
near Bury St. Edmunds
in Suffolk
, England and was the seat of the Kytson and Gage families 1525-1887. Both families were Roman Catholic Recusants.
, a merchant and member of the Mercers Company, who completed it in 1538. The house is one of the last examples of a house built around an enclosed courtyard with a great hall. It is constructed from stone taken from Ixworth Priory (dissolved in 1536) and white bricks baked at Woolpit
. The house is notable for an ornate oriel window incorporating the royal arms of Henry VIII
, the Kytson arms and the arms of the wife and daughters of Sir Thomas Kytson the Younger (Kytson quartered with Paget; Kytson quartered with Cornwallis; Kytson quartered with Darcy; Kytson quartered with Cavendish). The house is embattled, and in the great hall there is an oriel window with fan vaulting by John Wastell
, the architect of the chapels at Eton College
and King’s College, Cambridge. The chapel contains 21 lights of Flemish glass commissioned by Kytson and installed in 1538, depicting salvation history from the creation of the world to the Last Judgement. This is the only collection of pre-reformation glass that has remained in situ in a domestic chapel anywhere in England. In the dining room is a Jacobean symbolic painting over the fireplace that defies interpretation, bearing the legend ‘obsta principiis, post fumum flama’ (‘Beware the first signs, behind the smoke are flames’).
The house was altered by the Gage family in 1775. The outer court and the east wing were demolished and the moat was filled in. Alterations on the front of the house were begun but never completed, and Sir John Wood attempted to restore the interior of the house to its original Tudor appearance in 1899. He rebuilt the east wing and re-panelled most of the house in oak. One room, the Oriel Chamber, retains its original seventeenth century paneling, in which is embedded a portrait of James II
painted by William Wissing in 1675. It is thought that some of the original panelling found its way to the Gage’s townhouse in Bury St. Edmunds, now the Farmers’ Club in Northgate Street.
The ornate windows and mouldings at the front of the building feature on the coverpiece on the Suffolk edition of Pevsner's
Buildings of England.
stopped briefly at Hengrave on her way to Framlingham Castle
in 1553, but there is no evidence for this other than that John Bourchier, Earl of Bath
, who had married Sir Thomas Kytson’s widow Margaret, was a loyal supporter of the Queen. (However the Queen's father Henry VIII was godfather to Margaret's son Henry Long from her 2nd marriage, so it is not entirely improbable). Elizabeth I
stayed at Hengrave from 27–30 August 1578 and a chamber is named in her honour. The madrigalist John Wilbye
was employed by the Kytsons at Hengrave and in Colchester
from around 1594 until his death in 1638, as was the composer Edward Johnson
. During the Stour Valley anti-popery riots of 1642, Sir William Spring
, Penelope Darcy's cousin, was ordered by Parliament to search the house, where it was thought arms for a Catholic insurrection were being stored.The Jesuit William Wright was arrested at Hengrave Hall.
King James II visited Hengrave throughout the 1670s and attended the wedding of William Gage and Charlotte Bond in 1670. The lawyer and antiquarian John Gage
was the brother of William Gage, 7th Baronet, and wrote 'The History and Antiquities of Hengrave in Suffolk' in 1822. It is said that the greengage
was named after a tree first grown in England at Hengrave, but the tree was actually named after the Viscounts Gage of Firle, Sussex who were cousins of the Hengrave Gages.
to Henry VIII). The marriage settlement of Dame Margaret and her 3rd husband, the 2nd Earl of Bath
, in 1548, gave her complete control over the extensive personal property she brought into their marriage, including the right to devise it by will should she predecease him. Hengrave eventually passed down the female Kytson line, and on the death of Elizabeth Kytson in 1625 the house was inherited by her daughter Mary Kytson, who had married Thomas Darcy, 1st Earl Rivers. By her granddaughter Penelope Darcy’s marriage to Sir John Gage, 1st Baronet, the house passed into the Gage family. The house was used as a refuge by the English Augustinian Canonesses of Bruges
from 1794–1802, led by their Prioress Mother Mary More
. The Canonesses ran a school. In 1887, on the death of Lady Henrietta Gage, the house was bought by John Lysaght, one of the founders of the Australian steel industry. In 1895 it was bought by Sir John Wood, and on his death sold to the Religious of the Assumption
, who ran a convent school until 1974.
On 14 September 1974 the Assumptionists founded the ecumenical Hengrave Community of Reconciliation, originally a group of families of different Christian denominations. Later, the Community came to consist of long-term members, who remained in the Community for up to seven years, and short-term members, many of whom came from countries in Central and Eastern Europe for periods ranging from one year to three months. Although strongly inspired by other ecumenical communities like Taizé
and the Iona Community
, the Hengrave Community had a distinctive character owing to the Sisters’ continued presence. The Hengrave Community was dissolved in September 2005, closing its Christian and conference centre at the site, after failing to fund £250,000 for improvements. The current owner of the hall is David Harris who has submitted plans to convert the existing building into private housing. It is currently used for wedding receptions and other exclusive functions.
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
near Bury St. Edmunds
Bury St. Edmunds
Bury St Edmunds is a market town in the county of Suffolk, England, and formerly the county town of West Suffolk. It is the main town in the borough of St Edmundsbury and known for the ruined abbey near the town centre...
in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, England and was the seat of the Kytson and Gage families 1525-1887. Both families were Roman Catholic Recusants.
Architecture
Work on the house was begun in 1525 by Thomas Kytson the ElderThomas Kytson the Elder
Sir Thomas Kytson was a wealthy English merchant, sheriff of London, and builder of Hengrave Hall.-Life:He was son of Robert Kytson of Warton, Lancashire. He came to London when young, and was apprenticed to Richard Glasyer, a mercer, and on the expiration of his indenture was admitted a freeman...
, a merchant and member of the Mercers Company, who completed it in 1538. The house is one of the last examples of a house built around an enclosed courtyard with a great hall. It is constructed from stone taken from Ixworth Priory (dissolved in 1536) and white bricks baked at Woolpit
Woolpit
Woolpit is a village in the English county of Suffolk, midway between the towns of Bury St. Edmunds and Stowmarket As of 2007 it has a population of 2030. It is notable for the 12th-century legend of the green children of Woolpit and for its parish church, which has especially fine medieval woodwork...
. The house is notable for an ornate oriel window incorporating the royal arms of Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
, the Kytson arms and the arms of the wife and daughters of Sir Thomas Kytson the Younger (Kytson quartered with Paget; Kytson quartered with Cornwallis; Kytson quartered with Darcy; Kytson quartered with Cavendish). The house is embattled, and in the great hall there is an oriel window with fan vaulting by John Wastell
John Wastell
John Wastell was an English gothic architect responsible for Manchester Cathedral, parts of King's College Chapel, Cambridge, the crossing tower of Canterbury Cathedral, and the fan vaulted section of Peterborough Cathedral. He also worked on Bury St Edmunds Abbey....
, the architect of the chapels at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and King’s College, Cambridge. The chapel contains 21 lights of Flemish glass commissioned by Kytson and installed in 1538, depicting salvation history from the creation of the world to the Last Judgement. This is the only collection of pre-reformation glass that has remained in situ in a domestic chapel anywhere in England. In the dining room is a Jacobean symbolic painting over the fireplace that defies interpretation, bearing the legend ‘obsta principiis, post fumum flama’ (‘Beware the first signs, behind the smoke are flames’).
The house was altered by the Gage family in 1775. The outer court and the east wing were demolished and the moat was filled in. Alterations on the front of the house were begun but never completed, and Sir John Wood attempted to restore the interior of the house to its original Tudor appearance in 1899. He rebuilt the east wing and re-panelled most of the house in oak. One room, the Oriel Chamber, retains its original seventeenth century paneling, in which is embedded a portrait of James II
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
painted by William Wissing in 1675. It is thought that some of the original panelling found its way to the Gage’s townhouse in Bury St. Edmunds, now the Farmers’ Club in Northgate Street.
The ornate windows and mouldings at the front of the building feature on the coverpiece on the Suffolk edition of Pevsner's
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
Buildings of England.
Connections
Some have speculated that Mary IMary I of England
Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...
stopped briefly at Hengrave on her way to Framlingham Castle
Framlingham Castle
Framlingham Castle is a castle in the market town of Framlingham in Suffolk in England. An early motte and bailey or ringwork Norman castle was built on the Framlingham site by 1148, but this was destroyed by Henry II of England in the aftermath of the revolt of 1173-4...
in 1553, but there is no evidence for this other than that John Bourchier, Earl of Bath
John Bourchier, 1st Earl of Bath
John Bourchier, 11th Baron FitzWarin, created 1st Earl of Bath was born in Essex, England to Fulk Bourchier, 10th Baron FitzWarin and Elizabeth Dinham.-Marriages:...
, who had married Sir Thomas Kytson’s widow Margaret, was a loyal supporter of the Queen. (However the Queen's father Henry VIII was godfather to Margaret's son Henry Long from her 2nd marriage, so it is not entirely improbable). Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
stayed at Hengrave from 27–30 August 1578 and a chamber is named in her honour. The madrigalist John Wilbye
John Wilbye
John Wilbye , was an English madrigal composer. The son of a tanner, he was born at Brome, Suffolk, near Diss, and received the patronage of the Cornwallis family. It is thought that he accompanied Elizabeth Cornwallis to Hengrave Hall near Bury St...
was employed by the Kytsons at Hengrave and in Colchester
Colchester
Colchester is an historic town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in Essex, England.At the time of the census in 2001, it had a population of 104,390. However, the population is rapidly increasing, and has been named as one of Britain's fastest growing towns. As the...
from around 1594 until his death in 1638, as was the composer Edward Johnson
Edward Johnson
-Politicians:* Edward Johnson * Edward Johnson , former mayor of Baltimore* Edward A. Johnson , first African American elected to New York state legislature...
. During the Stour Valley anti-popery riots of 1642, Sir William Spring
Sir William Spring, 1st Baronet
Sir William Spring, 1st Baronet was a British politician and a member of the wealthy and prominent Spring family of Pakenham, Suffolk.-Life:...
, Penelope Darcy's cousin, was ordered by Parliament to search the house, where it was thought arms for a Catholic insurrection were being stored.The Jesuit William Wright was arrested at Hengrave Hall.
King James II visited Hengrave throughout the 1670s and attended the wedding of William Gage and Charlotte Bond in 1670. The lawyer and antiquarian John Gage
John Gage Rokewode
John Gage Rokewode was a historian and antiquarian.-Life:He was the fourth son of Sir Thomas Gage of Hengrave, and took the name Rokewode in 1838 when he succeeded to the Rokewode estates. John was a descendant of a maternal line from Ambrose Rookwood...
was the brother of William Gage, 7th Baronet, and wrote 'The History and Antiquities of Hengrave in Suffolk' in 1822. It is said that the greengage
Greengage
The greengages, also known as the Reine Claudes, are the edible drupaceous fruits of a cultivar group of the common European plum. The first true greengage was bred in Moissac, France, from a green-fruited wild plum originally found in Asia Minor; the original greengage cultivar nowadays survives...
was named after a tree first grown in England at Hengrave, but the tree was actually named after the Viscounts Gage of Firle, Sussex who were cousins of the Hengrave Gages.
Owners
When Sir Thomas Kytson died in 1540, he left Hengrave and all his other property to his wife, Dame Margaret (née Donnington). With her he had a posthumous son, afterwards Sir Thomas Kytson, and four daughters, Katherine, Dorothy, Anne, and Frances. Just two months after her first husband's death, she married 2ndly, Sir Richard Long (c.1494-1546) of Shengay (Gentleman of the Privy ChamberPrivy chamber
A Privy chamber was the private apartment of a royal residence in England. The gentlemen of the Privy chamber were servants to the Crown who would wait and attend on the King and Queen at court during their various activities, functions and entertainments....
to Henry VIII). The marriage settlement of Dame Margaret and her 3rd husband, the 2nd Earl of Bath
Earl of Bath
Earl of Bath was a title that was created five times in British history, three times in the Peerage of England, once in the Peerage of Great Britain and once Peerage of the United Kingdom...
, in 1548, gave her complete control over the extensive personal property she brought into their marriage, including the right to devise it by will should she predecease him. Hengrave eventually passed down the female Kytson line, and on the death of Elizabeth Kytson in 1625 the house was inherited by her daughter Mary Kytson, who had married Thomas Darcy, 1st Earl Rivers. By her granddaughter Penelope Darcy’s marriage to Sir John Gage, 1st Baronet, the house passed into the Gage family. The house was used as a refuge by the English Augustinian Canonesses of Bruges
Bruges
Bruges is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country....
from 1794–1802, led by their Prioress Mother Mary More
Mother Mary More
Mother Mary More O.S.A. was the ninth and last lineal descendant of Sir Thomas More and Prioress of the English Convent at Bruges....
. The Canonesses ran a school. In 1887, on the death of Lady Henrietta Gage, the house was bought by John Lysaght, one of the founders of the Australian steel industry. In 1895 it was bought by Sir John Wood, and on his death sold to the Religious of the Assumption
Religious of the Assumption
The Religious of the Assumption were founded by Saint Marie Eugénie Milleret in Paris in 1839. Her vision was of transforming society through education...
, who ran a convent school until 1974.
On 14 September 1974 the Assumptionists founded the ecumenical Hengrave Community of Reconciliation, originally a group of families of different Christian denominations. Later, the Community came to consist of long-term members, who remained in the Community for up to seven years, and short-term members, many of whom came from countries in Central and Eastern Europe for periods ranging from one year to three months. Although strongly inspired by other ecumenical communities like Taizé
Taizé
Taizé is the name or part of the name of several places in France and an asteroid:* Taizé Community in Taizé, Saône-et-Loire, a monastic order visited by many young people* Taizé, Saône-et-Loire in the Saône-et-Loire département...
and the Iona Community
Iona Community
The Iona Community, founded in 1938 by the Rev George MacLeod, is an ecumenical Christian community of men and women from different walks of life and different traditions in the Christian church....
, the Hengrave Community had a distinctive character owing to the Sisters’ continued presence. The Hengrave Community was dissolved in September 2005, closing its Christian and conference centre at the site, after failing to fund £250,000 for improvements. The current owner of the hall is David Harris who has submitted plans to convert the existing building into private housing. It is currently used for wedding receptions and other exclusive functions.
Sources
- Gage, John The History and Antiquities of Hengrave in Suffolk (1822);
- Gage, John The History and Antiquities of Suffolk: Thingoe Hundred (1838);
- Harris, Barbara J. English Aristocratic Women, 1450-1550: Marriage and Family, Property and Careers (2002)