Gardens in Suffolk - Christchurch Mansion, Somerleyton Hall, Helmingham Hall, Henham Park, Shrubland Park (Paperback)

Chapters: Christchurch Mansion, Somerleyton Hall, Helmingham Hall, Henham Park, Shrubland Park. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 20. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Christchurch Mansion is a stately home within Christchurch Park on the edge of the town centre of Ipswich, Suffolk, England. It is now owned by the town and houses a museum. The Grade I listed building mansion houses a collection of pottery and glass, a contemporary art gallery and a collection of paintings by artists including John Constable and Thomas Gainsborough. There are rooms preserved as past inhabitants would have known them, complete with original items of fine clothing. The house sits within a 70 acres (280,000 m) public park which features many beautiful trees, rolling lawns and ponds. Christchurch Park was originally the grounds of the Priory of the Holy Trinity, with an area of many square miles, coming up to the medieval town walls. During Henry VIIIs dissolution of the monasteries, the monastery was dissolved and the land was purchased by Sir Edmund Withipoll, who built the mansion in 1548-50, the ground floor of which remains largely as he left it. His granddaughter, Elizabeth Withipoll, married Leicester Devereux, 6th Viscount Hereford and the mansion passed to the Devereux family, who rebuilt the upper floors after a fire in about 1670, when the main porch was also added. In 1734, Claude Fonnereau purchased the mansion from Price Devereux, 10th Viscount Hereford. A road next to the park is named after the family. The mansion was bought by Felix Cobbold from a syndicate of property developments 1894 to save the building from demolition. Cobbold, a weathly local businessman and philanthropist, then offered to give it to the Ipswich Corporation to establish a Museum and Art Gallery, together with a furt...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=65222