Dalham Hall is a

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

and estate, located in the village of

Dalham Dalham is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. The name, meaning 'homestead/village in a valley' is of Old English origin and first recorded in the Domesday Book. Dalham is west of the town of Bury St ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

, near Newmarket, and west of

Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...

. Owners of the Dalham estate have included: *c.1050-1240 Peche Family *1240-1320 English Crown Estate (from 1303,

Margaret of France, Queen of England Margaret of France ( – 14 February 1318) was Queen of England as the second wife of King Edward I. She was a daughter of Philip III of France and Maria of Brabant. Childhood Margaret was the daughter of King Philip III of France and his se ...

) *1320-1362 Walter de Norwich, followed by his son

John de Norwich (died 1362) Sir John de Norwich (died 1362), was a 14th century English knight and administrator who served as Admiral of the Fleet from the Thames northwards (1336), lieutenant of the Seneschal of Gascony (1338), summoned to parliament in 1342, and fought du ...

*1362-1417 various joint-owners, including Robert Scales, 5th Baron Scales *1417-1697 Stuteville Family *1697-1702

Sir Gilbert Dolben, 1st Baronet Sir Gilbert Dolben, 1st Baronet (1658-1722), of Finedon, Northamptonshire, was an English lawyer, landowner and Tory politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1685 and 1715. He also served as a High Court judge in I ...

*1702-1714 Bishop

Simon Patrick Simon Patrick (8 September 1626 – 31 May 1707) was an English theologian and bishop. Life He was born at Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, eldest son of Henry Patrick, a wealthy merchant, on 8 September 1626, and attended Boston Gramma ...

and his eponymous son *1714-1901 Affleck Family, including Gilbert Affleck and

John Affleck John Affleck (12 February 1710 – 17 February 1776) was a British Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1743 and 1761. Affleck was the second and eldest surviving son of Gilbert Affleck of Dalham Hall, Suffolk and his wife ...

*1901-1928 Rhodes Family, including

Cecil Rhodes Cecil John Rhodes (5 July 1853 – 26 March 1902) was a British mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes and his Br ...

and Frank Rhodes *1928-2009 Philipps Family *2009–present

Sheikh Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief of a ...

Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum ( ar, محمد بن راشد آل مكتوم, links=no; ; born 15 July 1949) is the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, vice president, prime minister, and minister of defence of the United Arab Emir ...

The manor was not the principal residence of any family until acquired by the Stutevilles, the first of whom is likely to have established Dalham Hall.

(1626–1707), the

Bishop of Chichester The Bishop of Chichester is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the counties of East and West Sussex. The see is based in the City of Chichester where the bishop's seat ...

(1689–1691) and

Bishop of Ely The Bishop of Ely is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Ely in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese roughly covers the county of Cambridgeshire (with the exception of the Soke of Peterborough), together with a section of nort ...

(1691–1707), purchased this estate at Dalham in December 1702, and commissioned the building of the present Dalham Hall. John Affleck Esq. acquired the estate from the Bishop's son in 1714. After remaining in Affleck's family (the

Affleck baronets The Affleck Baronetcy, of Dalham Hall in the County of Suffolk, was a title in the Baronetage of Great Britain. It was created on 10 July 1782 for the naval commander Sir Edmund Affleck, 1st Baronet, Edmund Affleck. The title became extinct on the ...

) for nearly 200 years, in 1901, the estate was bought by

, on the evidence of photographs, and tales of its

game A game is a structured form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator s ...

shooting Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or blowpipe). Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missiles can ...

prowess. After Rhodes died in 1902, before taking possession, his brother

Francis William Rhodes Colonel Francis William Rhodes (9 April 1850 – 21 September 1905) is perhaps the best known member of the Rhodes family after his brother Cecil. Trained as a soldier from his youth, he participated in a considerable amount of conflict in diff ...

and his family inherited the hall, and erected a hall in the village in Cecil Rhodes' memory. The estate was bought in 1928 by Laurence Philipps, a shipping magnate who established what became known as the

Dalham Hall Stud Darley Stud is located at Dalham Hall, the global breeding operation owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the Ruler of Dubai and vice-president of the United Arab Emirates. It is on the outskirts of Newmarket, Suffolk, the internat ...

. The house was three storeys high until a serious fire of 1954, when the top floor was removed and the roof reconstructed. In 1981 Major Jim Philipps sold the stud to

, the Ruler of

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

and Prime Minister of the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

. After the major died in 1984, the rest of the estate was held in trust by his heirs until July 2009, when it was sold for £45 million to Sheikh Mohammed via estate agents

Bidwells Bidwells LLP is a multi-disciplined firm of property and agribusiness consultants offering property services and consultancy in the U.K. Bidwells has 13 offices throughout the U.K, 9 of which are located in England and 4 in Scotland. Property Week ...

. The Hall is listed Grade II on the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, an ...

Footnotes

References

* {{coord, 52.2352, 0.5235, type:landmark_region:GB-SFK, display=title Country houses in Suffolk Grade II listed buildings in Suffolk Grade II listed houses