A Tudor house up for sale that stayed in one family for nearly a thousand years

Penny Churchill

The site of picturesque Flemings Hall at Bedingfield was granted by William the Conqueror and remained in the same family for 900 years.

flemings hall
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Flemings Hall in Suffolk has a history stretching back almost a millennium – and that history is about to have a new chapter as it is on the market on the market via Savills.

The site of the house was granted by William the Conqueror to one of his knights, Ogerus de Pugeys, who subsequently took the name of Bedingfield, after the Saxon name for the area. His family was to own the house for 900 years, until 1934.

During that time, Sir Peter Bedingfield fought alongside the Black Prince at the battle of Crécy and was present at the siege of Calais. His descendants include Sir Henry Bedingfield, Privy Councillor to Edward VI and Mary I and custodian of Elizabeth I during her imprisonment in the Tower of London.

In the 1960s, the stage photographer Angus McBean bought the house and embarked on a major restoration of the wonderfully atmospheric house and its almost 5½ acres of grounds.

He lived there until shortly before his death in 1990, since when subsequent owners have brought the house and grounds fully up to date.

Flemings Hall (on the market at a guide price of £3m) stands at the centre of a typically medieval, defensive fortified-moat system. The house is built around a medieval core with a king-post roof forming a long straight front with a brick two-storey porch built in about 1550. Of particular note is the central Great Hall, dating from 1306, with its magnificent fireplace, carved oak mantelpiece and full-height linen-fold chimney breast. Oak beams and rafters abound throughout the house and on every floor are arched brick Tudor fireplaces and oak panelling.

In all, the hall offers some 6,960sq ft of accommodation, including five reception rooms, a study, a kitchen/breakfast room, seven bedrooms and three bathrooms. Sec-ondary buildings include a recording-studio complex, an open-plan entertaining barn and a 16th-century thatched barn.

Flemings Hall is on the market at a guide price of £3m) – see more details and pictures.