Gedding Hall

Has been described as a Possible Fortified Manor House

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains

NameGedding Hall
Alternative Names
Historic CountrySuffolk
Modern AuthoritySuffolk
1974 AuthoritySuffolk
Civil ParishGedding

Early C16 gatehouse, with small circular gunports, formerly part of a moated manor house, incorporated into a house of 1897. A series of four connected fishponds lie east of the house. The gatehouse is reached via a C19 wooden bridge over the moat. The first manor house on the site is believed to have been built in 1273 and rebuilt in C15. (PastScape)

Moat. Large, square, circa 75m x 80m, arms circa 10m wide. E and S arms wet, remainder dry and 2.5m deep. W portion of S arm re-cut in recent times. Drawbridge in S arm. Series of four fish ponds to E, fed by stream to the S, a sluice ditch connects the moat to the ponds. Occupied, C16 gatehouse, brick house restored in 1897. Moat said to have been built first in 1273 for Sir John de Geddynge and was rebuilt in C15 by the Chamberlayne family (Pevsner). Possible traces of earlier enclosure in front of hall. Isolated, circa 130m from parish boundary, 450m from church. Gedding belonged to the Chamberlain family by the early C15. The family's period of greatest power and wealth was under Sir Robert Chamberlain (circa 1435-1491), a leading Yorkist who fell from grace under Henry VII and was beheaded in 1491. He must be a strong contender to be the builder of the gatehouse and perhaps of the whole moated complex. If so the building must be placed in the 1480's, roughly contemporary with Oxburgh and Shelton Halls in Norfolk, and like them it is likely to have had a courtyard plan. (Suffolk HER)

Gatehouse Comments

House now owned by noted musician and metal detectorist Bill Wyman.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

This is a Grade 2* listed building protected by law

Historic England Scheduled Monument Number
Historic England Listed Building number(s)
Images Of England
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceTL953585
Latitude52.1907615661621
Longitude0.857129991054535
Eastings595380
Northings258570
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

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Books

  • Pevsner, N., 1961, Buildings of England: Suffolk (London, Penguin) p. 207
  • Dickinson, P.G.M., 1957, Little Guide to Suffolk p. 170
  • Wall, 1911, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Suffolk Vol. 1 p. 609 online copy

Journals

  • Kenyon, J.R., 1981 'Early Artillery Fortifications in England and Wales: a Preliminary Survey and Re-appraisal' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 138 p. 227

Other

  • Cole, M.A., 1993, Gedding Hall Resistivity survey for Suffolk Archaeological Unit online copy