Treasures of the east

Rejuvenated Wolterton Hall and its 458-acre estate in the picturesque Bure Valley, north Norfolk, is on the market for the first time. £25m

TODAY’S COUNTRY L IFE sees the launch onto the open market, for the first time in its history, of Grade I-listed Wolterton Hall and its surrounding, 458-acre Wolterton Park estate near Itteringham, in north Norfolk’s picturesque Bure Valley, four miles from Aylsham, seven miles from Holt and a stone’s throw from the sublime north Norfolk coast. For sale at a guide price of £25 million through Tom Goodley of Strutt & Parker in Norwich (01603 883607) and Mark McAndrew in London (020–7691 2214), Wolterton Hall is one of north Norfolk’s four great Whig ‘power houses’— the others being Houghton Hall, home of the Marquess and Marchioness Cholmondely, Holkham Hall, home of the Earl and Countess of Leicester, and Raynham Hall, the seat of the Townshend family for almost 400 years.

Wolterton Hall was built between 1722 and 1742 by the diplomat and parliamentarian Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole of Wolterton, whose family had been established as landed gentry in Norfolk since the 14th century. He was the younger brother of Sir Robert Walpole, Britain’s first prime minister, who inherited the 17,000-acre Houghton estate in 1700 and appointed his friend and royal architect Thomas Ripley to oversee the construction of Palladian Houghton Hall, where the first stone was laid in May 1722.

Horatio already owned a house at Wolterton, which burnt down during building works, and he was persuaded by Ripley to replace it with a grand country house designed in the Palladian tradition. Work began in earnest in 1727 and was completed in 1742. In the early 1800s, the Palladian steps leading to the Marble Hall were replaced by a porte cochère and, in 1828, George Repton, son of landscape designer Humphry, built on the East Wing and added the Portland-stone steps and balcony to the south façade.

By then, the Walpoles were also Earls of Orford, although they continued to live at Wolterton Hall until the mid 19th century, when the 4th Earl of Orford moved to nearby Mannington Hall. Wolterton remained empty and might well have been demolished had his successor, the 5th Earl, and his American wife, Louisa Corbin, not returned and restored it in 1905. The 5th Earl had no heir and the house and estate were left to Robert Henry Walpole, 7th Baron Walpole of Wolterton and 9th Baron Walpole of Walpole, who opened the house to the public in 1950.

Disaster struck in 1952 when a fire broke out in one of the attic bedrooms, gutting the entire floor and causing serious water damage in the rooms below as the fire brigade fought to contain the blaze. Undaunted, Lord Walpole embarked on a full-scale restoration and, three years later, the hall was back on track and once more open to the public.

In 1989, the hall and estate were inherited by his son, the 8th/10th Baron Walpole, but it was unoccupied for almost 30 years when, in 2016, the estate was bought privately by renovation specialists Peter Sheppard and Keith Day. Since arriving at Wolterton, the dynamic designers have worked tirelessly to return the Hall, its secondary houses, estate buildings, stables and parkland to their former splendour. Their efforts were recognised last year when they were joint winners of the Historic Houses Restoration Award for 2022 and the recipients of the Georgian Group’s Architectural Award for the Restoration of a Georgian Country House.

Seven years on, having decided to scale down their operation to ‘something more modest’, they leave behind a remarkable architectural legacy, notably in the eight double-height state rooms on the grand piano nobile. These rooms contain many original paintings, sculptures and furnishings acquired from the Walpole family, which may be for sale by separate negotiation. There are 12 working bedrooms in all, between the State Bedrooms on the first-floor piano nobile and nine further bedrooms on the second floor. The ground floor, which houses the Picture Room, a studio, two kitchens (including one by Smallbone), an atmospheric library and a light and homely sitting room, is used by the owners for ‘everyday living’. The attic floor is still largely a blank canvas.

The Marble Hall in the East Wing was previously the entrance hall before Repton’s removal of the Baroque staircase in 1828. The Saloon is the largest and most magnificent room in the house: hung throughout with slate-coloured linen, it has three full-height sash windows and access to a huge south-facing balcony, with spectacular views over the lake and parkland created by garden designer Charles Bridgeman, who also worked at Houghton Hall. The State Dining Room is covered in scarlet wool damask as used at Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, the Gothic Revival villa built by Horatio’s nephew, Horace Walpole. The Venetian room is so-called for the vast Palladian window that covers the entire west wall. The Boudoir is one of three rooms used as a suite for important guests, such as the King or a high-ranking aristocrat.

Given the financial challenge involved in restoring the Hall’s 33,619sq ft of living space spread over three floors, attics, cellar and basement, the new owners started off by adapting some of the estate’s principal houses as rental properties. Already restored and producing a solid income are the seven-bedroom Regency East Wing designed by George Repton; the three-bedroom Steward’s House, originally part of the gatehouse; the Treasury where Lord Walpole and his butler kept the estate accounts; the Grade II-listed, three-bedroom Garden House designed by Thomas Ripley; and the Grade II-listed, three-bedroom Georgian gatehouse, plus various other estate houses and cottages. There is planning consent for five further dwellings in the 18th-century coach house and stable block designed by Ripley, with scope for further development elsewhere in the house and estate.

Down in Essex, Mark Rimell of Strutt & Parker’s country department (020–7591 2213) seeks ‘offers over £4.6m’ for Grade II*-listed Rivenhall Place at Rivenhall, which overlooks twin lakes at the heart of 68 acres of woods and rolling parkland designed by Humphry Repton, three miles from Witham and 12 miles equidistant from Chelmsford and Colchester.

Early records suggest that the grounds of Rivenhall Place were part of a hunting park owned by Edith of Wessex, who married Edward the Confessor and was Queen of England from 1045 to 1066. In 1590, the house was bought by Ralph Wiseman, the head of a Catholic family whose priest’s hole in the fireplace of the Great Hall can still be seen. Three generations later, the Wisemans sold the house to the Western family, who renamed it Rivenhall Place.

Repton took on Rivenhall Place as his first commission in Essex in 1789, adding the second lake and the bridge, as well as advising on the transformation of the house into the Georgian style. Extensively restored in recent years, the main house offers 11,560sq ft of easy living space, including three fine reception rooms, a sitting room, study, kitchen/breakfast room and orangery, with the principal bedroom suite and four further bedrooms on the first floor and three more bedrooms and a games room on the second floor. Amenities include a tennis court, a swimming pool and hot tub, the latter concealed behind mature yew hedges. The three-bedroom cottage adjoining the house is currently let through Airbnb and provides a useful income.

Tim Phillips of Savills country department (07870 867218) is overseeing the sale, at a guide price of £5.75m, of elegant, Grade II-listed East Donyland Hall set in 83 acres of parkland, woods and farmland running down to the Roman River and saltmarsh near the quiet rural village of Fingringhoe, five miles south-east of Colchester in the heart of Roman Essex.

The first record of a house on the site was in 1463, followed in 1638 by that of a mansion house built around the medieval core and encircled by the moat that still exists today. In 1730, David Gansel, an architect, acquired