Spixworth Park
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Spixworth Hall | |
|---|---|
.png) View of Spixworth Hall (demolished in 1952) | |
  Location within Norfolk | |
| General information | |
| Type | Country house |
| Architectural style | Elizabethan |
| Location | Spixworth, Norfolk, England |
| Coordinates | 52°40′47″N 1°18′26″E / 52.6796°N 1.3073°E |
| Completed | 1607 |
| Demolished | 1952 |
Spixworth Hall was an Elizabethan country house in the civil parish of Spixworth in Norfolk, located just north of the city of Norwich on the Buxton Road. It was demolished in 1952.
The house was located in Spixworth, close to the Buxton Road. It was 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Norwich and some 10 miles (16.1 km) south of North Walsham.
History
The house was constructed by William Peck in 1607. The park was 200 acres, which ran parallel to the present Buxton Road. The complete estate was in excess of 2,000 acres (8.1 km2) situated on the edge of Norwich, with land bordering the present Norwich International Airport. Both Longe Road and William Peck Road are named in honour of the former owners of Spixworth Hall.[1]
The Longe family, who were considerable land owners (owning Reymerston Hall, Norfolk, Hingham Hall, Norfolk, Dunston Hall, Norfolk, Abbot's Hall, Stowmarket, and Yelverton Hall, Norfolk), bought the estate from the Pecks in 1685. Spixworth Hall and the surrounding parkland remained in the Longe family for 257 years until 1952, when it was demolished.[1]
In 1920, the house was tenanted by Maud and Reginald Gurney of Gurney's Bank in Norwich, who had recently moved from Earlham Hall. Many buildings of the former estate still remain, including the gate house, dove cote, stable block and the ice house.[1] The Longe family were traditionally clergymen and lawyers.
The house's library consisted of one of the most extensive collections of first-edition books of any stately home in the UK, with works by William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and Miquel de Cervantes. As was fashionable with large households, records show that the Longe family kept animals, including a large monkey who used to live in the stable block, and a bear who lived in the butler's cottage and the wine cellar.[1] The Lordship of the Manor is still held by the Longe family, as well as much of the surrounding parkland.
There are in existence, but now dispersed, a number of paintings of notable Bacons and Longes, perhaps the most famous being the Gainsborough portrait of the Longe family in Spixworth Park. This must have been painted before 1788, since that is the year in which Gainsborough of Sudbury died. The superb Temple cabinet which housed Sir William Temple's old medals and seals stood in the library. Another treasure was Dorothy Osborne's plain gold engagement ring engraved ‘the love I owe I cannot showe’. Sir William Temple of Moor Park was married to Dorothy Osborne, and they were close friends of the Longes. Until 1787, when it was unbricked, an alcove in the gallery contained the ‘soul’ of Sir William Peck. Documents do not state when this act occurred, but it is documented that Sir William desired this ‘bricking up’ to save his soul from adversaries.[1]
