Helmingham Hall Gardens

In 1611 King James I established the title of Baronet, and the contemporary Lionel Tollemache was one of the very first to be titled thus.

During the Civil War and before the Restoration in 1660, Helmingham was one of the headquarters of the secret Society of the Sealed Knot, which was instrumental in restoring Charles II back on the throne.

In the Hall there are several letters written in exile in Paris from him to Elizabeth Tollemache. Her father had been ‘whipping boy’ to James I’s son – later Charles I – and had earned his Earldom of Dysart and the beautiful Ham House in Richmond Park by taking a beating for the young prince for his misdemeanours.