| Sudbury Hall | |
|---|---|
 The north-east façade of Sudbury Hall | |
  Location of Sudbury Hall in Derbyshire | |
| General information | |
| Status | open |
| Type | English country house |
| Architectural style | Restoration-eraEnglish Baroque,Jacobean |
| Location | Sudbury, Derbyshire,United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 52°53′11″N1°45′55″W / 52.886338°N 1.765233°W /52.886338; -1.765233 |
| Construction started | 1660 |
| Completed | 1680 |
| Renovated | 1969-1971 |
| Renovating team | |
| Architect | John Beresford Fowler |
| Website | |
| nationaltrust.org.uk | |
Sudbury Hall is acountry house inSudbury, Derbyshire, England. One of the country's finestRestoration mansions, it hasGrade I listed building status,[1] and the garden is Grade II listed in Historic England'sRegister of Parks and Gardens.[2]
TheNational Trust Museum of Childhood is housed in the 19th-century servants' wing of Sudbury Hall.
In 1086, following theNorman Conquest, themanor of Sudbury was listed in theDomesday Book.
TheVernon family came to Sudbury as a result of the 16th-century marriage of the Sudbury heiress Ellen Montgomery to Sir John Vernon (d.1545), a son of SirHenry Vernon ofHaddon Hall inDerbyshire.[3]
The present house at Sudbury was built shortly after therestoration of King Charles II, between 1660 and 1680 by George Vernon, grandfather ofGeorge Venables-Vernon, 1st Baron Vernon.[3] George Vernon used his new-found wealth from marrying Northamptonshire heiress Margaret Onley to build a grand new mansion on the site of a smaller house. He kept meticulous accounts of the building project, and because there is no record of any payment to an architect, historians surmise that George designed Sudbury Hall himself.[4] George Vernon also established the Estate village close to the Hall to provide housing for his servants, labourers and tradesmen. The buildings in the village still survive intact today.[3]
Sudbury Hall was leased for three years from 1840 by QueenAdelaide, the widow ofWilliam IV. The east wing was added byGeorge Devey in 1876–83.[1] By the late 19th century, the extent of the Sudbury Estate stretched fromCubley down toMarchington inStaffordshire.[3]
In 1916,George Venables-Vernon, 8th Baron Vernon, died aged 26 in Malta from an illness contracted while in service as an officer inWorld War I. As a result, the Sudbury estate was subject toDeath duties, the taxation which had been introduced in 1894 by theLiberal Government.[5] As with many other large estates across Britain, this increased financial burden compelledFrancis Venables-Vernon, 9th Baron Vernon, to sell off tracts of land and some of the contents of Sudbury Hall. In the 1930s and 1940s, the 9th Lord was able to buy back some of this land to provide social housing in Sudbury village.[3]
DuringWorld War II, aUnited States Army Air Forces hospital was based in Sudbury Park, close toRAF Sudbury. The land was purchased by the government in 1948 and converted intoHM Prison Sudbury, with a housing estate for prison officers.[3]
Death duties continued to burden the Vernon family, and in 1967, Sudbury Hall and its principal contents along with part of the gardens and parkland, was transferred by John Venables-Vernon, 10th Baron Vernon via theNational Land Fund to theNational Trust, in part payment of death duties. The remainder of the Sudbury Estate is still held by Vernon descendants.[4][3]
In 2020 Sudbury Hall closed to the public for renovations, during which the National Trust consulted 100 child "ambassadors" to redesign the visitor experience for children. It reopened in October 2022, rebranded asThe Children’s Country House at Sudbury, equipped with a dressing up and dancing area, a mirror ball, a neon sign with the words "Party like it’s 1699", anescape room experience and humorousspeech bubbles hung next to portraits.[6] The revised visitor experience has been criticised by the Vernon Family; Joanna FitzAlan Howard, daughter of the 10th Baron Vernon accused the National Trust of "dumbing down" by turning her ancestral home into "a child-centred theme park".[7] The National Trust have stated that the new experience offers "new ways for children to learn about the history of Sudbury Hall" and that the speech bubbles inform children about "hidden symbolism in historic portraits".[8][9] The changes have also been criticised by the pressure groupRestore Trust for discouraging adult visitors unaccompanied by children, and for removing the house contents to make way for "fun active games and activities".[10] In May 2023 the Children’s Country House at Sudbury was awarded Permanent Exhibition of the Year at the Museum and Heritage Awards 2023. Judges expressed the view that the redesign of Sudbury Hall offered a "participatory and imaginative new bold approach to interpreting historic houses and heritage".[11][12]
Sudbury Hall dates from theRestoration era, but George Vernon's building is based on aJacobean design, with its ornate Great Staircase and Long Gallery. Notably, thestate rooms are located on the west side of the building and theservants' quarters on the east side, a traditional layout preferred by Tudor architects.[1] Architectural historian Cherry Ann Knott has suggested that the design of the hall was based onCrewe Hall inCheshire, which stands around 1.5 miles fromHaslington Hall, where George Vernon was born.[13]
The house is a two-storeyred brick building fronted with aBaroque main entrance porch, with two levels of pairedcolumns, each surmounted with apediment. The carvings above the porch were sculpted byWilliam Wilson.[1]
The interior of the house was completed in 1691. There have been a number of small alterations in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the interior was restored 1969-1971 byJohn Beresford Fowler. The Great Staircase, designed byEdward Pierce, dates from c.1676 and is considered to be one of the finest Restoration staircases in Britain. It is noted for its white-painted balustrade with luxuriant, carved foliage. The landing ceiling is adorned with ornate plasterwork by Robert Bradbury and James Pettifer (1675) and ceiling paintings of mythological scenes byLouis Laguerre. Other plasterwork within the house was designed by Pettifer, Bradbury and Samuel Mansfield of Derby. Of particular note in thedrawing room is an ornately carvedovermantel byGrinling Gibbons.[1][14]
Between c.1872 and 1880, architect George Devey significantly modified and extended an early 19th-century servants' east wing to Sudbury Hall; this now houses the National Trust Museum of Childhood.[1]
Sudbury holds a large collection of portraits of Vernon family members, as well as other paintings and works of fine art. Of particular note are a portrait of George Vernon (1635/6-1702), the builder of Sudbury Hall, byJohn Michael Wright, (oil on canvas, 1660).[15] Other portraits in the collection include:
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The house was used for the internalPemberley scenes inthe BBC dramatisation (1995) of Jane Austen'sPride and Prejudice. The house's centrally-positioned domed cap-house featured in the title shot of Yorkshire Television's children's programmeThe Book Tower.
