300-year-old lime avenue to Broke Hall - geograph

Broke Hall is an

English country house image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhou ...

at Nacton, near

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

. It overlooks the

River Orwell The River Orwell flows through the county of Suffolk in England from Ipswich to Felixstowe. Above Ipswich, the river is known as the River Gipping, but its name changes to the Orwell at Stoke Bridge, about half a mile below where the river beco ...

, opposite Pin Mill. The gardens were landscaped by

Humphry Repton Humphry Repton (21 April 1752 – 24 March 1818) was the last great designer of the classic phase of the English landscape garden, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown. His style is thought of as the precursor of the more intric ...

in 1794, and the house is

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

. The site was purchased by

Sir Richard Broke Sir Richard Broke or Brooke (died 1529), was an English judge, who served as Chief Baron of the Exchequer. Broke was fourth son of Thomas Broke of Leighton, Cheshire, Leighton in Cheshire, and his wife, daughter, and heiress of John Parker of Co ...

, who built a manor house there, during the reign of

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

. The present house was built by

James Wyatt James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the Neoclassicism, neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to ...

for Philip Bowes Broke in 1792, but is probably a remodelling of an earlier house built in 1775 by Richard Norris. Broke Hall was the birthplace of Admiral Philip Bowes Vere Broke. The property remained in the Broke family until 1887, when on the death of Admiral Sir George Broke-Middleton, it was inherited by his niece, Lady de Saumarez, formerly Jane Anne Broke, the wife of James Saumarez, 4th Baron de Saumarez, thus passing into the Saumarez family.Walford Dakin Selby, ed., ''The Genealogist'', vol. 23 (1907), p. 143: "He on his uncle's decease in 1860, assumed the additional name of Middleton, and dying s.p. on 19th January 1887, the property devolved upon his niece, Jane Anne Broke, the daughter of his deceased brother, Captain Charles Acton Broke, 11. E. (ob. 1855). She, on 10th October 1882, became the wife of Sir James St Vincent, fourth Baron de Saumarez." A

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

in Ipswich is named after the hall.

References

Grade II* listed buildings in Suffolk Houses in Suffolk Nacton Gardens by Humphry Repton {{Suffolk-struct-stub