Cockfield Hall

Cockfield Hall in Yoxford in Suffolk is a Grade I listed private house standing in 40 acres (160,000 m²) of historic parkland, dating from the 16th century. It was built by the Spring family, wealthy cloth merchants and later baronets of Pakenham.

Cockfield Hall takes its name from the Cokefeud Family, established there at the beginning of the 14th century. It then passed to the Hopton Family, one of whom, Sir Arthur Hopton built the Gatehouses and North Wing in the mid 16th century and was said to have accompanied Henry VIII on the Field of the Cloth of Gold. His successor, Sir Owen Hopton, was lieutenant of the Tower of London and as such, was ordered in October 1567 by Queen Elizabeth to take into custody at Cockfield so that she could recover from her privations, Lady Catherine Grey, sister of Lady Jane Grey and granddaughter of Mary Tudor. She died there a year later and was buried in the Cockfield Chapel in Yoxford Church.

The estate was subsequently sold to the Brooke family. When Lady Brooke died in 1683, it passed to her daughter Martha's son, Sir Charles Blois, 1st Baronet, who came to live at Cockfield in 1686. From then, the house remained in the ownership of the Blois family until 1997. The main part of the house had sash windows installed in the 18th century and in 1896 the Victorian Great Hall was created on the site of the original Tudor Hall in the Jacobean style.

External links

• Catherine at Cockfield Hall — Tudor Place
• Hopton family — National Portrait Gallery
• The Cockfield Chest — JSTOR