Kenninghall Place

Description

A mansion called East Hall was the residence of the lords of the manor until it was taken down by Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, who erected a more stately mansion, Kenninghall Place, about a quarter of a mile to the north east of it between 1505-25. However, circa 1650 it was demolished and the materials sold with only the service wing surviving. Now in domestic use, the service wing is constructed from brick with internal timber partitioning and a plain tiled roof. It is of two storeys plus attic with polygonal corner shafts annulated at first floor level with bell moulding. (PastScape)

Kenninghall Palace, or Place; it fronted east and west, and was built in form of an (H), having a porter's lodge, and all things else in the grandest manner. It was situated in the midst of a large park, which contained 700 acres, well stocked with deer, the north side guarded with woods and groves, being distant at least a mile from the town, which lies westward. At the Duke's attainder it was seized by the King, and settled on the then Lady Mary, who kept her court here. To this castle (as Stow calls it) she removed from Hunsdon in Hertfordshire, and hither resorted to her several lords and knights of this county, as Sir John Shelton, Sir Henry Bedingfield, Sir Henry Jerningham, and others, at the death of Edward VI from whence they went to Framlingham castle. Afterwards it was in Queen Elizabeth's hands, who was often here; she it was that ordered her tenant Chapman, who then lived in Fersfield lodge, to lay out the way now called Chapman's Entry, out of her own ground, the old way being so strait that the Queen could not conveniently pass through it; it is now disused, and is called Queen Bess's Lane, from her being scratched with the brambles in riding through it, as tradition tells us. It continued in the Norfolk family as their capital seat in this county, till about 90 years since, when it was pulled down, and the materials sold for a trifle, with which great numbers of chimnies and walls in the neighbourhood are built, as is evident from the Mowbrays and Arundels arms which are upon the bricks. (Blomefield)