Helmingham Hall

En un regard

Le château en bref

At the heart of a park of some 160 hectares roamed by red and fallow deer, Helmingham Hall is one of the most remarkable moated houses in Suffolk. Built in 1510 by Lionel Tollemache on the site of the former Creke Hall, it has belonged for more than five centuries to the same family, the Tollemaches, and remains a private residence. The house is arranged around a courtyard and entirely surrounded by a wide moat, crossed by two drawbridges that, by tradition, are still raised every evening. Beneath its red-brick façades with crenellated parapets, stepped gables and octagonal chimneys, much of the Tudor timber-framed structure still survives. The present exterior owes a great deal to Georgian and Victorian alterations, notably by John Nash around 1800 and Anthony Salvin around 1840. The estate is best known for its Grade I listed gardens: a moated walled garden with box parterres, a walled kitchen garden with iron tunnels, rose gardens and enclosures created by Lady Tollemache. The gardens open to the public in season and host concerts, plant fairs, exhibitions and classic car shows.