Hoveton Hall

There was a manor house called Hoveton Hall on the property which was demolished when the new house was built in 1809. The site of this old manor is unclear as no part of the building remains. However Basil Cozens-Hardy analysed the existing maps and data and concluded.

The originator of Hoveton Hall was Christabell Burroughes who commissioned Humphry Repton to construct the mansion in 1809.

Christabell was born in 1764. Her father was Henry Negus (1734-1807) a solicitor who worked in Bungay, Suffolk but who also owned Hoveton Hall. The Negus family had for a long time been wealthy landowners in the Hoveton area.

In 1789 Christabell married James Burkin Burroughes who had inherited Burlingham Hall in Norfolk (now demolished). The couple lived at Burlingham Hall for some time but unfortunately in 1803 at the age of only 43 James died leaving Christabell to care for seven sons and one daughter.

She remained at the Hall for several years. In 1807 her father Henry Negus died and as she was his sole heir she became owner of Hoveton Hall with its existing old manor house. Possibly because her eldest son Henry Negus Burroughes was to turn 21 in 1812 and therefore inherit Burlingham Hall, she decided to build her own house at Hoveton. By 1812 the new house was complete and she moved there with her younger children. She suffered a severe loss three years later when two of her sons James and Edward who had been sent to Cambridge University died there within a week of each other because of an outbreak of an infectious fever.

Christabell was a very good gardener and was mentioned frequently in the gardening magazines of the time. She had the walled garden constructed early as it is shown in the Enclosure Map of 1828. In 1841 James Grigor, a botanist visited Hoveton Hall and gave a very favourable account of the garden.

In 1912 Sir Jacob Preston, the grandson of the first Preston owner, sold the Hall to Reverend John Hare Beevor (1861-1914). After his death two years later in 1914 his wife Susan continued to live at the property but she decided to sell it in 1919.

The new owner was Geoffrey Fowell Buxton (1852-1929) who was a Director of the Barclay Bank. He was also involved in the Volunteer movement and was the second in command of the 1st Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment. In 1903 he was the Mayor of the Norwich Town Council. When he died in 1929 his wife Mary put the property on the market. An advertisement for the sale of the house is shown.

George Cradock bought the house but unfortunately his wife Eunice died in 1934 and he put the property up for sale the following year. Captain Henry Douglas Clark (1889-1952) who was the son of a very prominent shipbuilder purchased the house and made substantial renovations. In 1946 Desmond Buxton bought the Hall and it has remained in the Buxton family since then.