Earsham House is a Georgian country house near the village of

Earsham Earsham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. Earsham is located west of Bungay and south-east of Norwich. The village is located close to the border between Norfolk and Suffolk, and the River Waveney. History Ear ...

, Norfolk. It is a

Grade II* listed building 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, Hi ...

. The house is built in three storeys of red brick with a parapet and a slate hipped roof. It has a symmetrical 7-bay frontage, the middle 3 bays of which are recessed and fronted by a porch. A wing to the north-east contains the Duke of Cumberland's Dining Room. Other service wings are attached.

History

The site was originally occupied by a large timber-framed buildings which were later encased in brick and are now subsidiary blocks to the present main hall. The present main hall was built attached to the previous buildings around 1707 by amateur architect John Buxton (1685–1731), who then sold it to Colonel William Windham in 1721. Windham had made a fortune during the South Sea Bubble and became the MP for Sudbury in 1722 and for

Aldeburgh Aldeburgh ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk District, East Suffolk district, in the English county, county of Suffolk, England, north of the River Alde. Its estimated population was 2,276 in 2019. It was home to the comp ...

in 1727. It passed to his son

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

who served the Duke of Cumberland and was also an MP for Aldeburg and for

Helston Helston () is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated at the northern end of the The Lizard, Lizard Peninsula approximately east of Penzance and south-west of Falmouth, Cornwall, Falmouth.Ordnance Survey: ...

. He employed the architect Sir

John Soane Sir John Soane (; né Soan; 10 September 1753 – 20 January 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neoclassical architecture, Neo-Classical style. The son of a bricklayer, he rose to the top of his profession, becoming professor ...

around 1784 to make a number of substantial improvements, primarily to the interior, but also to convert the detached Orangery into a Music Room. On William jnr's death in 1789 the hall transferred to his nephew Joseph Wyndham-Bower and ultimately to Sir William Windham Dalling, 2nd Baronet ( High Sheriff of Norfolk in 1819) and then to the Meade family. In 1920 it was leased to Americans Cecil Henry Oliverson and his sister. From 1948 to 1973 the hall was leased as a boarding and day school for boys. After the closure of the school the building was sold by auction in 1973 and fell into a state of disrepair. It was bought in 1976 by the present owners, the Derham family, who have refurbished it and made it self-supporting by the hosting of events and weddings and by the sale of antiques.

References

{{reflist Country houses in Norfolk Grade II* listed buildings in Norfolk Georgian architecture in England South Norfolk