Abbas Hall is a small country house in Great Cornard, a village located near the town of Sudbury, Suffolk in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, the Elizabethan exterior of which masks a medieval two-bay aisled hall of c.1290, from which two massive oak posts with moulded capitals and two arches of the screens passage survive. The inserted floor in the great hall was put in about 1548–49. The house was originally the house of West Malling Abbey's manorial steward here. The house, from the grounds of which

Thomas Gainsborough Thomas Gainsborough (14 May 1727 (baptised) – 2 August 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, he is considered one of the most important British artists of ...

painted his celebrated view of Great Cornard Wood, was restored by the present owner, Stefan Kosciuszko, Chief of Staff Hinduja Group, and chief executive AMAS-IPS, the project development company for the Group, after 1995. Abbas Hall

References

*J. Kenworthy-Brown ''et al.'', ''Burke's & Savill's Guide to Country Houses: vol. 3, East Anglia'', 1981, p. 212 *Sir N. Pevsner & E. Radcliffe, ''The buildings of England: Suffolk'', 1974, p. 69 *E. Sandon, ''Suffolk Houses: a study of domestic architecture'', 1977, pp. 44, 127, 306–7, 331

External links

* Grade I listed buildings in Suffolk Babergh District Country houses in Suffolk {{suffolk-geo-stub