6 bedroom detached for sale

A 16th-century Grade II listed Suffolk Manor House in exceptional formal and woodland gardens with natural spring fed lake leading to the River Stour, superb swimming pool complex and outbuildings.

Arguably the loveliest home and garden in the region, Moor Hall is a 16th Century Suffolk Manor House, once the home of Humphry Repton for a short while after his birth in 1752. His mother-in-law was from the Fitch family who had owned the house since the mid 1600s. When in his thirties, he planted the specimen trees like the Sequoia and Scots Pine still standing to this day.
Indications are that there has been a property on the site since about 1200. The central timber frame of Moor Hall was erected around 1550 with beams that were previously used as ship timbers, now over a millennia in age. The 1770 cartography shows Moor Hall possessed almost 4,000 acres around it at that time. The hallway floors are ancient flags.
Wealth generated from wool production gave sufficient funds to Georganise the timber frame house in the 1780s by installing shuttered sash windows and walls inside and out were then covered in lime plaster.

In the 1860s the garden was reduced to five and a half acres when the Cambridge to Sudbury railway line was laid through the grounds and we believe the compensation received was spent on the house to create the Victorian oculus stairwell and the chequer tiled music room, the snug and the cloakroom.

A hundred years later in 1960 the rail embankment was re-acquired by Moor Hall from BR upon closure of the line, now it forms a natural privacy boundary. Structural works on the house were undertaken in 1961 (just prior to Grade II listing) including partial underpinning of the Northwest corner with a new raised timber sole-plate on a brick and concrete foundation, the floors of the drawing room, dining room and music room were presumably rotten and these floors were made solid.

Much of the internal plaster was removed then, but has now been re-instated incorporating insulation.

In 1991, at a cost of 600k, an upscale Finnish glulam leisure spa was built and the 100k Marston Langliner Orangery added, and a further 300k spent then on raising and attaching the adjacent barn to give the present L shape layout.
During the past four years over twenty local craftsmen have been employed to comprehensively restore the structural fabric, interiors and the grounds of the dwelling and give it another long lease of life including: State of the art three-phase electrical installation, complete rewiring, high volume and efficient plumbing infrastructure, removal and rebuild of every sash window with new weights, ropes and draught-proofing, a new high efficiency swimming pool plant room, sauna and steam room. partial re-roofing, new shower rooms, rebuild of the rear timber frame, replaced conservatory roof.

Approximately 7000sq-ft in the main L shaped house comprises:

Drawing Room, Dining Room, Morning Room, Garden Room, Office/Snug, Boot Room, Laundry, Mark Wilkinson solid Maple Gourmet Kitchen, Marston Langlinger Conservatory, Hallway with original flags. Cloakroom. 6 large double bedroom suites all with large well-appointed bathrooms (4 are shower rooms).

Integral Workshop. Double integral large garage. Boiler Plant and electric mains room. Entirely new installations and infrastructure throughout.
Leisure complex (2,600sq-ft) comprising: Swimming/Diving Pool 12m x 6m x3m; Steam Room. Larch Sauna; Upper Gym; Changing facilities, Showers, New High Efficiency Plant room with dual heat pump and oil systems.
Fully insulated Craft Studio/Home Office (400sq-ft). Open plan with wood-burner and sliding double glazed doors. Mower Shed. Garden Tool shed. Log store.

Outside 5.5 acres including an acre of spring fed natural connected lakes and spring. Victorian bathing pond. Woodlands. Lawns. Landscaped Herbaceous and Shrub gardens. Formal walled parterre front garden, Streams leading to the Stour.

Two entrances; West leading to turning circle and ample parking with entrance to front parterre and front door; East leading to parking for seven cars, EV car charging and to the back door lobby. The southern rear garden gate leads to a footpath to the village, school & N. Essex countryside.