Milden Hall is a much-loved and lived-in Grade II* Georgianised 16th-century hall farmhouse on a 500-acre environmentally-friendly working farm which the family have farmed for over 200 years – the seventh generation is now apprenticed!
Research by the family has revealed the the various owners of Milden since Walter the Deacon in the Domesday survey of 1085, and the de Meldyngge family who built the Norman Castle (now Scheduled Ancient Monument earthworks), through wealthy absentee landowners and charitable families to modern day with mysteries, sad tales, strange co-incidences and much-loved characters. Half the Tudor (or earlier) house was re-modelled in the Georgian period with large rooms, cornices, fireplaces, high ceilings and houses collections of ancient Suffolk maps, prints, paintings, books and old postcards. The other half remains late Tudor with tiny rooms, linen-fold panelling, the pantry (stuffed with home-made preserves) and two cellars.
Time and weather-permitting, beyond the farmhouse, the tours include what has been described as one of the finest 16th and 17th century farmyards in the country: aisled barns (one still stores grain, and another provides quirky large group accommodation) and cartlodges with the beginning of a modest farm museum (housing farm-found artefacts from fossils and Stone Age flints to WWII bullets), with talk on bats, beetles, moths and woodlice. Beyond, guests can walk in the walled garden with thatched gazebo, old trees, ancient wildflower meadows and enjoy the hedges and ponds. The Hawkins family are obsessive local historians and conservationists, and inveterate collectors of things (including an interesting collection of Harry Becker pictures), so expect passionate discussion on how to keep history, wildlife and succession going strong!
Please note that Milden Hall is NOT in the town of Mildenhall which is 25 miles further north. It is close to Lavenham, Suffolk.
Tickets £25 including coffee and cake on arrival
Restrictions: no dogs, photography by arrangement only
Event organiser is Milden Hall.
Disclaimer: All information was correct when the listing was prepared. Any questions about the event should be directed to the event organiser.