We stopped off at Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk on our way to the ferry that was taking us to the Netherlands last month. It’s now owned by the National Trust but originally it was built for Sir Edmund Bedingfeld’s family in 1482, but over the years it has been reconfigured a lot with each generation wanting to pull bits down to add whatever was fashionable at the time. The moat is only about three feet deep so it wasn’t really ever meant to be for defensive purposes, but it adds to the grandeur of the place. We had a guided tour of the outside of the building before going inside. I recommend doing that if you visit as it’s very interesting. Although the front of the hall (below) has been changed over the years it is basically original.
From the side you can see the quite elegant bridge to the doorway. There was a bit of consternation while we were there as there was a ‘drowning’ teddy bear at the other side of the bridge and two worried looking wee girls waiting for help to get it out.
The photo below is of the back of the hall. It has been demolished and rebuilt a lot over the years to suit the prevailing fashions, I don’t think it was ever an improvement.
The Bedingfelds were a prominent Catholic family with links to Mary,Queen of Scots and the Oxburgh Hangings which were worked by Mary and Bess of Hardwick are on show too as you can see below. People can be rather scathing about the amount of needlework purported to have been done by Mary, Queen of Scots, but she didn’t have much else that she could do over the years she was imprisoned, and of course she had the help of her ladies in waiting too
You can read more about the history of the hall here.
I had to check a map to see where Norfolk is – I have not been there but Oxburgh Hall looks well worth the visit. It is sad she had nothing to do except sew, pray, and write letters. Wall hangings probably reduced the damp or kept the rooms slightly warmer, so more practical than mere embroidery. My nephew just did a three week French immersion program in Normandy with his school and I made him go see the Bayeaux Tapestries which are even more impressive in person than in pictures.
By the way, did you think about We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea while you were on the ferry to Holland? I didn’t realize you dislike flying but maybe the ferry is nearly as fast? How long does it take? Airports and flight delays are dreadful these days so a ferry is probably a good idea.
Constance,
I wish we had gone to see the Bayeux Tapestries when we were there!
I did think of We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea, although they ended up on an island off northern Netherlands as I recall. The ferry isn’t fast, it takes about six hours, but as we go away for three weeks or so and have stuff to take to relatives there it’s a lot easier for us to just fling everything into the back of the car and make a holiday of stopping off a couple of nights in the English midlands, it’s about a 500 mile drive down to the ferryport in Harwich from Fife. I’ll email you about Norfolk at some point, if that is okay.