Spixworth Park

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Spixworth Hall
View of Spixworth Hall (demolished in 1952)
Spixworth Park is located in Norfolk
Spixworth Park
Location within Norfolk
General information
TypeCountry house
Architectural styleElizabethan
Town or citySpixworth, Norfolk, England
Coordinates52°40′47″N 1°18′26″E / 52.6796°N 1.3073°E / 52.6796; 1.3073
Completed1607
Demolished1952

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.

Location[edit]

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[edit]

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]

Longe family[edit]

The house, from the south drive

The Longe family are believed to have settled in Norfolk prior to 1299, with reference being made to both Robert le Longe and John le Longe who were traders of saltpetre in Norwich and the City of London. The family are notably descended from William of Wykeham, Chancellor of England and Bishop of Winchester, from which much of the family wealth can be attributed. Another branch of the family settled in Suffolk in the 1300s with Walterus le Longe and Rogerus le Longe both mentioned as bailiffs in Dunwich, Suffolk, in 1332 and 1333. The family is a senior branch of the House of Longe.

In 1619, the Longe family purchased estates of Reymerston Hall and later Spixworth Hall in 1685 and Dunston Hall in 1859. In 1903, the Suffolk branch purchased Abbot's Hall in Stowmarket, Suffolk which is now the Museum of East Anglian Life. A number of the family served as High Sheriffs of Norfolk and Suffolk. In 2011, the will of Thomas Longe of Ashwellthorpe was discovered, giving historians the first positive identification of a common soldier fighting for the House of York during the Battle of Bosworth.[2]

Arms of Longe of Spixworth Hall, Norfolk[3]

High Sheriffs of Norfolk:

  • 1641 - Robert Longe (1588-1656), of Reymerston Hall.
  • 1644 - Robert Longe (1619-1688), of Foulden, Norfolk.
  • 1752 - Francis Longe (1726-1776), of Spixworth Hall.
  • 1757 - Isreal Longe, of Dunston Hall, Admitted to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in 1656 and Middle Temple in 1756.
  • 1786 - Francis Longe (1748-1812), of Spixworth Hall.
  • 1975 - Major Desmond Longe (1914-1990), of Woodton Grange, Norfolk.

High Sheriffs of Suffolk:

  • 1984 - Nicholas Longe of Grange Farm, Hasketon, Woodbridge.

Descent of the senior Norfolk branch: The descent of the Norfolk branch of the Longe family of Hingham and latterly Spixworth Hall and Reymerston Hall is as follows:

Other notable members of the Longe family:

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 30 March 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ^ "Norfolk man named as Battle of Bosworth Yorkist fighter". BBC News. 31 August 2011.
  3. ^ Burke, John (1838). "A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry; Or, Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland Etc".
  4. ^ "Will shows first Yorkist fighter". 31 August 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  5. ^ a b c d "Searching for Surname=LONGE". venn.lib.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
  6. ^ . https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146645403
  7. ^ "Suffolk Artists - LONGE, Robert".
  8. ^ "Suffolk Artists - LONGE, William Verner".
  9. ^ "History".

Further reading[edit]

  • Montgomery-Massingberd, H. (1976) Burke’s Irish Family Records (5th ed.). London: Burke’s Peerage. Page 523.
  • Burke, J. (1836) A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. III. London: R. Bentley, Bell and Bradfute, J. Cummings. Page 361-362.
  • Stone, M. (2008) The Diary of John Longe, Vicar of Coddenham (1765-1834). Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer.
  • Debrett, J. (1819) Debrette’s Baronetage of England: Containing their Descent and Present State, their Collateral Branches, Births, and Issue, Vol. II. London: J. Moyes. Page 956.
  • Montgomery-Massingberd, H. (1962). Burke’s Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, Vol. III. (18th ed.). Page 404-405.
  • Burke, Sir B., Burke, J., Clowes, W. (1966) The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales: Comprising a Registry of Armorial Bearings from the Earliest to the Present Time. London: Harrison. Page 621.
  • Mason, J. (1998) Spixworth: History and Landscape in a Norfolk Village.
  • Bignold, Sir R. (1948) Five Generations of the Bignold Family, 1761-1947: And their connection with the Norwich Union. London: B.T. Basford. Page 204.
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