Pakenham Hall was a

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...

Pakenham, Suffolk Pakenham is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. Its name can be linked to Anglo-Saxon roots, Pacca being the founder of a settlement on the hill surrounding Pakenham church. The village descr ...

, the capital residence of Pakenham manor. It was demolished and replaced by a more modern house, now called Pakenham Old Hall, in 1900. It was the

family seat A family seat, sometimes just called seat, is the principal residence of the landed gentry and aristocracy. The residence usually denotes the social, economic, political, or historic connection of the family within a given area. Some families t ...

of the

Spring family The Spring family is a Suffolk Landed gentry, gentry family that has been involved in the politics and economy of East Anglia since the 15th century, as well as holding large estates in Ireland from the 16th century.Joseph Jackson Howard, ‘Spri ...

between 1545 and 1735, and then of the Barons Calthorpe. The manor was originally in the possession of Theodred, Bishop of London before being granted to

Bury St Edmunds Abbey The Abbey of Bury St Edmunds was once among the richest Benedictine Monastery, monasteries in England, until its Dissolution of the Monasteries, dissolution in 1539. It is in the town that grew up around it, Bury St Edmunds in the county of Suff ...

Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was King of England from 1042 until his death in 1066. He was the last reigning monarch of the House of Wessex. Edward was the son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy. He succeede ...

in 1042. In the reign of

Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots (Latin: Malleus Scotorum), was King of England from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he was Lord of Ireland, and from 125 ...

the manor was held by the Pakenham family, later

Earls of Longford Earl of Longford is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of Ireland. History The title was first bestowed upon Francis Aungier, 3rd Baron Aungier of Longford, in 1677, with remainder to his younger brother Ambrose. He had previ ...

. It subsequently reverted to the Church and remained in the possession of the abbey until the Dissolution of the Monasteries when it was seized by

The Crown The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...

. The manor was purchased from the Crown by Robert Spring, the son of

Thomas Spring of Lavenham Thomas Spring (c. 1474 – 1523) (''alias'' Thomas Spring III or The Rich Clothier) of Lavenham in Suffolk, was an English people, English cloth merchant.Phil W Kaufman, ''American Traces in Anglian Places'' (Lulu.com), 19. He consolidated his fa ...

, on 27 September 1545 for £1,432. Upon its inheritance by Sir William Spring the manor became the principle

of the Spring family, who rebuilt the house in the Tudor style. In the

hearth tax A hearth tax was a property tax in certain countries during the medieval and early modern period, levied on each hearth, thus by proxy on wealth. It was calculated based on the number of hearths, or fireplaces, within a municipal area and is con ...

returns of 1672 Pakenham Hall was owned by Sir William Spring, 2nd Baronet and is recorded as having had 23 hearths, demonstrating that the house was of considerable size. At this stage, the estate of the Hall covered 1200

acres The acre ( ) is a unit of land area used in the British imperial and the United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, ...

of prime agricultural land. Upon the death of Sir William Spring, 4th Baronet in 1735 the Hall and estate, valued at £1,500 a year, were inherited by his sisters, Merielina, wife of Thomas Discipline Esq, and Mary. The smaller

dower house A dower house is usually a moderately large house available for use by the widow of the previous owner of an English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish estate (house), estate. The widow, often known as the "dowager", usually moves into the dower house fr ...

of Newe House remained in the Spring family until the mid-19th century. In 1748 the whole Pakenham Hall estate was owned by Thomas Discipline and in 1786 it was sold to Sir Henry Gough, 2nd Baronet, later Baron Calthorpe. The Gough-Calthorpe family demolished the old medieval and Tudor hall and replaced it with a more modern mansion of built of white brick and flint in around 1900. The house on the site is currently owned by Nigel Roy Whitwell Esq.Nigel R. Whitwell
'The Manors of Pakenham', ''Pakenham - Village of Two Mills''
(1984). (Accessed 15 February 2015)

References

{{Reflist Country houses in Suffolk Former country houses in England ** * Demolished buildings and structures in Suffolk Buildings and structures demolished in 1990