Orchard Wyndham

Orchard Wyndham has been home to the Wyndhams and their ancestors for over seven hundred years. Its history is as complex as its architecture, and as tricky to unravel.

A MEDIEVAL HOUSE

We know from surviving documents that the house was already built in part by 1287, the property of Thomas de Horcherd who lived there at that time. But the history of the place likely goes back much further. During excavations in the 1970s, we discovered the remains of ancient drains formed from hollowed out oak trees rammed together – the remains of much earlier occupation.

During the 14th Century, the family, its name now anglicised to “Orchard”, extended the house with a second range, and joined this to the first with curtain walls to form a central courtyard.

The house passed through the female line to the Sydenham family in the 15th Century, whereupon it was known as Orchard Sydenham. Our Sydenham ancestors built another great hall – the one we still use – and other major rooms around a second courtyard.

In the 1520s, the house again passed through the female line to the Wyndham family from Felbrigg Hall in Norfolk, and became known as Orchard Wyndham. The Wyndhams modernised again, opening up new windows to the outside, and building a very large wing, which has since been destroyed by fire.