Fornham Hall was a large 18th-century country house near

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 – ...

. It was demolished in 1957.

History

The Fornham estate was bought in 1731 by Samuel Kent, a rich London

grain merchant The grain trade refers to the local and international trade in cereals and other food grains such as wheat, barley, maize, and rice. Grain is an important trade item because it is easily stored and transported with limited spoilage, unlike other ...

who became a local MP. Sir Charles Kent, Bt (Samuel's grandson) employed

James Wyatt James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806. Early life W ...

to design a large new house on the estate in the 1770s. He also became a local MP (for Thetford) and was

High Sheriff of Suffolk This is a list of Sheriffs and High Sheriffs of Suffolk. The Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown and is appointed annually (in March) by the Crown. The Sheriff was originally the principal law enforcement officer in the county a ...

for 1781. The house was acquired by Bernard Howard (subsequently 12th Duke of Norfolk) in 1797 and expanded on the Duke's behalf by the architect Robert Abraham in the 1820s. It was sold in 1842 to the second Lord Manners who sold it on to Sir William Gilstrap in 1862. The estate was acquired by the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

in 1939 and used for training purposes by the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

before the house was demolished in 1957. The grounds include the tower of the ruined church of St Genevieve.

References

Sources

* {{coord, 52.2825, 0.6966, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Country houses in Suffolk British country houses destroyed in the 20th century Buildings and structures demolished in 1957 Demolished buildings and structures in England