History

According to Faden’s 1797 map of Norfolk it was in the area where the farmhouse currently stands. However, this map is notoriously inaccurate and the house, although old enough, is probably too small. Hoveton Hall as it now stands is a fine Regency house built of gault brick with a slate roof and the design is attributed to Humphry Repton and his son John Adey Repton, bearing marked similarities to Sheringham Hall which was Repton’s last commission. It was built between 1809 and 1812 for Christobella Burroughes (nee Negus) and her husband James and then passed on to their son Henry. On his death in 1876 the house and land was sold to Sir Jacob Preston.

The Prestons, who are related to the Buxton family, were very large local landowners thought to have owned up to 15,000 acres and several large houses including Beeston Hall (the family seat,) Barton Hall and Hoveton Hall. The house was almost certainly let out to tenants during their ownership and there is some evidence to suggest that it was also empty for long periods of time. It was sold in 1912 to the Beevor family. It was then sold to Geoffrey and Mary Buxton in 1919. Geoffrey Buxton was a close cousin of the present family and so started the relationship that this family has with the Hall and gardens. Geoffrey and Mary lost two sons in the war and Bernard, the oldest son, died before his father which may explain why the estate was sold on Geoffrey’s death in 1929 to the Cradock family.

The Hall again appears to have been let out on several occasions as a number of different families lived there before it was sold in 1936 to Douglas Clark of a Northern Ireland shipbuilding family. He was a bachelor who set out to transform the house and gardens in the short space of time before the outbreak of Second World War. In the Hall he created what is known as the “Staircase Hall” by replacing a wall and door at the bottom of the stairs with four plaster doric columns to hold up the stone passage at the top of the very fine cantilevered staircase and further embellishments were the installation of double doors between it and the Drawing Room introduced architraves and the matching fireplace thought to be from Worstead House which was being demolished at the time. He also had the Loggia/Verandah built and outside he re-established the walled herbaceous border garden with the addition of the Spider Gate, improved the collection of rhododendrons and built a conservatory and tomato house. During the war the Hall was home to evacuees from London. Douglas Clark emigrated to Rhodesia after the 1945 election and sold the Hall to Desmond Buxton in 1946.

He lived there happily with his wife until his death in 1987 having built a fine collection of paintings, many of which still hang in the Hall today. Desmond’s son Andrew and his wife Barbara moved into the Hall late in 1988 and further restored and improved the gardens, woodlands and parkland into what you see today, building a Ha Ha on the south-facing lawn to improve the view towards the lake and church, creating the arboretum, increasing the rhododendron collection and restoring the early 19th century iron glasshouse. Barbara also setabout modernising the kitchen and redecorating most of the rooms. They opened the gardens in 1992 to share its beauty and to help contribute to the cost of its upkeep. Which brings us to the present day, with the Hall now occupied by their son Harry and his wife Rachel with their family.