Costessey Hall

I've taken the circular walk around Queen's Hills country park many times over the past eight years and, every now and then, in a certain light and when the leaves are sparse, an ornate tower seems to appear in a haze on the horizon to the south east. Looking across from a modern estate, this piece of history that seemed to wink in and out of existence felt like a little bit of magic on our door step. As we became familiar with the area, I realised that the tower must be on or near the Costessey Park golf course and suddenly it didn't seem so magical. I hate golf. In fact I forgot about the tower until it occured to me that I had some friends who quite enjoy golf who might be able to give me a few details. In fact I met them for lunch almost every day. They told me that it was all that remained of Costessey Hall and that even that was crumbling away.

I recently got into the habit of rising early in the mornings to photograph the sunrise. Squinting at the LCD display on my camera, it seemed there was something interesting on the horizon. It wasn't until I got a better look at the photos at home that the memory of the tower surfaced again. On subsequent mornings I got a better look and, crumbling or not, it was clear that this had once been something quite special.

I published my photos on the Secret Norfolk Facebook group and asked if anyone knew about Costessey Hall. This remarkable photo from Wikipedia was posted in response:

By Unknown author - http://sandgroper79.com/, Public Domain, Link

As i've explored the nearby villages i've realised that most of them (even the small ones) seem to have a grand hall, usually set well away from the main road and so mainly unseen. I'm guessing though that not many of them are quite as grand as Costessey Hall must have been in its heyday. Intrigued and slightly chastened by my failure to even check Wikipedia, I delved further (Googled).

The Costessey Park website includes a history section and the photos on that page further reveal what a flamboyant creation has been lost. It says:

Between 1826-36 J.C. Buckler produced a Gothic fantasy for Lord Stafford Jerningham which dwarfed the original Tudor hall; it was a superb folly with gables, turrets, pinnacles and chimneys all dominated by a massive keep.

The Jerningham in question was Sir George (7th Baronet & 8th Baron Stafford) who brought the title barony of Stafford to the family in 1824. Since then the Stafford knot has become closely identified with Costessey. The town cross on Town House road shows a section of Costessey Hall in the main picture and the knot is woven into the ornamental wrought iron above.

The Tudor Hall mentioned was built for Sir Henry Jernegan after Queen Mary granted him the property of Costessey Manor in 1555 after he had helped her cause. Well before that Costessey Manor was awarded to Alan Rufus by William the Conqueror in 1066 after the battle of Hastings.

At the time of writing we are in England's third lockdown so nobody is allowed to play golf at the moment. It seemed like a good opportunity to go for a walk across Costessey Park and when I emailed them, they kindly told me that they are welcoming walkers while lockdown is in place. It had been snowing in the week before we ventured across the golf course so the ground was sodden and squelched under foot as we left the path that leads in from the entrance on West End and made our way towards the tower. At the end of the path there is a well preserved building which, I think, is the building described here on the Costessey Park history page:

Speculation exists on whether the early Tudor building, now still standing in Costessey Park, is, in fact, the Tudor Manor granted to Lady Anne of Cleves by Henry VIII.

Nearby are the remains of several other buildings that haven't stood the test of time nearly so well.

Turning left towards the 18th fairway and crossing a small footbridge over the Tud, the mysterious tower emerged from the mist not far beyond. Despite its condition, it is an inspiring and imposing sight. The elaborate chimneys appear to have survived well though their slender height and decorative flourishes make them look fragile. All references to the tower say that this is the belfry block and the distinctive octagonal tower at one corner looks like it once housed a bell. A windowless colonnaded stone room sits at the top looking over the valley and I realised that it was this that had caught my attention in my sunrise photographs. The vast windows indicate that the tower may have only comprised two cavernous floors. Although ruin lends buildings a certain romance, its impossible to take in this breathtaking monument without a pang of regret at what might have been.

Sir George's son, Sir Henry Valentine inherited the tower but had no direct heirs himself so his nephew Augustus stood to inherit. Costessey resident Ernest Gage wrote a short history of Costessey Tower for his book Costessey: A Look Into the Past and describes how Henry took steps to prevent his 'lunatic' nephew from entering the House of Lords upon his inheritance. It is difficult to judge from Gage's short account how much sympathy Henry had for Augustus but a description of Augustus being certified insane by the 'masters of lunacy' in a Middlesex asylum is a reminder that mental health has historically been treated indelicately. Augustus inherited the Hall nevertheless and stayed for a short time but his brother, FitzOsbert, arranged to take him into his custody when it transpired that Augustus was unhappy there. FitzOsbert inherited the hall when Augustus died in 1892 and when he died unmarried in 1913 the Hall passed to his nephew Francis. Due to the arrangements that FitzOsbert had made for Augustus, the contents passed to Sir Henry Jerningham. Henry sold all of the contents and the empty hall was requistioned for the army to use in the First World War. When they left in 1918 the hall was too badly damaged to sell and so the hall was demolished.

So the palatial Jerningham home stood for less than a century. Looking at the photos of the ruined belfry I wonder how much the buildings were actually used during that period. I haven't found any details of how the army used the hall during thair stay but it seems that they didn't let the grandeur of their surroundings prevent them from treating it pretty harshly. Its safe to say that there were bigger issues to worry about at the time but I can't help wondering what the heck they got up to, how it influenced the direction of the war and how different the area would be had the tower survived.

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I've chosen Tower of Song by Leonard Cohen as a melancholy musical accompaniment to the sad story of Costessey Hall.

 

See Also 

• The Green Lady of Costessey Hall - Weird Norfolk in the EDP 
• The History of Costessey Park - Costessey Park 
• Costessey Hall - Wikipedia
• The Stafford Knot - joemasonspage
• The History of the Costessey Knot - Costessey Town Council
• Costessey: A Look into the Past - Ernest Gage
• The rise and fall of Costessey Hall - Signs of a Norfolk Summer (on Facebook)