Ditchingham Hall, Ditchingham (geograph 3396873)

Ditchingham Hall is an English country house, near the village of

Ditchingham Ditchingham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is located across the River Waveney from Bungay, Suffolk.Ordnance Survey (2005). ''OS Explorer Map OL40 - The Broads''. . History Ditchingham's name is of Anglo-S ...

in south

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, England, which is set in about of parkland landscaped by

Capability Brown Lancelot Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783), more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English gardener and landscape architect, who remains the most famous figure in the history of the English la ...

. The Hall is about northwest of Ditchingham off the B1332 road between

Bungay Bungay () is a market town, civil parish and electoral ward in the English county of Suffolk.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . It lies in the Waveney Valley, west of Beccles on the edge of The Broads, and at the neck of a meand ...

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 ...

and

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

. It is the country house of

Earl Ferrers Earl Ferrers is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1711 for Robert Shirley, 1st Earl Ferrers, Robert Shirley, 14th Baron Ferrers of Chartley. The Shirley family descends from George Shirley (died 1622) of Astwell Castle ...

since it was inherited by the 13th Countess Ferrers. The current owner is Robert William Saswalo Shirley, 14th Earl Ferrers. It is a private house and not open to the public.

History

The house was built in 1710 by Revd John James Bedingfeld and replaced an earlier one. In 1885, the house and estate were bought from the Bedingfield family by William Carr. The hall was enlarged in 1910 by his son, also William Carr, but reduced in size in the 1980s. The writer

Diana Athill Diana Athill (21 December 1917 – 23 January 2019) was a British literary editor, novelist and memoirist who worked with some of the greatest writers of the 20th century at the London-based publishing company Andre Deutsch Ltd. Early life ...

was brought up in Ditchingham Hall.Diana Athill: Being the other woman was what I was best at - ''Telegraph''
Retrieved 2016-11-01. The Great Storm of 1987 did great damage to the estate trees according to the German author W. G. Sebald who was visiting at the time.

References

{{authority control Country houses in Norfolk Grade I listed buildings in Norfolk Grade I listed houses South Norfolk Houses completed in 1710