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Haughley Park Opening Times:

'Bluebell Sundays': Gardens and Woods open, Teas, Cakes and Plant Stalls, in aid of Wetherden Church - see Events for details of dates and times.

Tuesdays, May-Sept, 2.00-5.30: Gardens and Woods. House by appointment only, tel. 01359 240701.

The Barn, Haughley Park: Venue available for weddings, parties, conferences and use meeting rooms for charities. See website: www.haughleyparkbarn.co.uk . Bookings and enquiries to Daphne King: tel. 01359 240701

The History of Haughley Park

The primary source of information shown below is the Haughley Park guide leaflet

Origins

In the middle-ages Haughley Park was a hunting ground of natural woods, heath and warren. Most of the soil is too thin and sandy ever to have been cultivated, though a rich seam of lime-free soil running through the east woods and garden now allows rhododendron and azaleas to flourish. It was from the nearby Woolpit Wood in the 12th century that the "Green Children" emerged, possibly the origin of the story of the Babes in the Wood.

The Sulyards: 16-18th  Centuries

The manor of Haughley, then including Wetherden and parts of Old Newton, passed to the crown in the early 16thC when the Duke of Suffolk married Mary Tudor, sister of Henry VIII. On her death in 1538, it was granted to her "Esquire of the Body" (bodyguard?), Andrew Sulyard, whose father, Sir John, had been a Lord Chied Justice under Henry VII and lived in Wetherden Hall.

The Reformation brought difficult times for the Sulyards who remained Catholics. Under Mary I, the second Sir John was a keen local enforcer of the old religion but under Elizabeth I, he and his son were frequently fined and imprisoned, so it was not until more settled times that his grandson, the third Sir John, built the imposing manor-house of Haughley Park in 1620.

This is one of the few remaining of some 20 large brick 17thC houses built in the Ipswich-Bury region. Mockbeggars Hall nr Claydon, Hemingsstone Hall, and Newe House, Pakenham are others. The bricks would have been made on site. Several hollows exist, eg the "dell", from where the clay may have come. Large flints as used for the garden walls abound in the clay subsoil here.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the house was the centre of an agricultural estate of about 2500 acres, mostly tenanted, and the Sulyards appear to have led a quiet life, excluded from national politics. This is probably why the house remained unaltered and unextended at this time.

In 1799 the last male Sulyard died leaving three daughters. Frances was a noted beauty and married Sir George Jerningham of Costessey, Norwich, later Lord Stafford, prominent in Catholic Emancipation.

The Crawfords: 19th Century

In 1811, the estate, now reduced to about 700 acres, was sold to William Crawford, a Scottish lawyer. In 1820 a fire destroyed the north end of the house which he rebuilt in Georgian style but with its east gable-end matching the Jacobean east facade with dummy leaded windows. In the mid-19thC, he or his son, the Rev William, added the long Stable Wing to the south-west corner of the house as well as the nearby outbuildings and the farmhouse behind the barn. He also built Haughley Crawfords School and left bequests for building Wetherden School and the Wetherden Charities. In 1867 Arthur Pretyman bought the estate, now 467 acres.

The 20th Century

After Mrs Pretyman died in 1918, the house was empty and in the hands of estate agents for 6 years. They depleted the woods of all saleable timber and then sold the property to Mr Turner Henderson, a retired tea planter, big game hunter (and animal lover!) who died in 1956, leaving house park and woods to the London Zoo for a Safari Park. They turned it down as unsuitable.

In 1957, under threat of demolition, the property was bought by Mr Alfred Williams as a site for his egg and poultry processing factory, offices and home. In 1961 when restoration of the house was almost complete, a fire gutted the private half of the house but left the external walls intact, leaving him little option but to start again.

The estate now consists of the park and about half of the original woodland and covers 267 acres. The rest of the woodland still exists south of the A14 which came through in 1975. The west woods were badly damaged by the 1987 gales. Some area have been replanted as mixed broadleaf, others left to regenerate as coppice or as natural woodland. Alfred Williams died in 1994 and his son Robert and family now live in the house.

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