Bedfield Hall, Suffolk

The isolated 9th century site was moated around 1300 and is adjacent to the 11th century church. The earlier part of the house, built in 1422, was enlarged and modernised with two wings of 1620 and 1630. 

Until the Dissolution, the manor was held by Eye Priory. For the past 40 years, the house and garden have been the home and working space of artist Timothy Easton. Timothy is also an architectural historian who has been responsible for decoding scribed symbols applied to interiors that helped past occupants gain protection against the fear of malevolent activities, and a specialist on the painted surfaces of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century buildings. Here at Bedfield Hall, most of the rooms have their early seventeenth-century decorative schemes intact or restored.

One of the five bridges that connect the two-acre garden

The first owner-occupier since around 1100 was a wealthy farmer, Thomas Dunston (resident 1610-1657). He was responsible for the layout of the painted rooms, two enriched plaster ceilings and, in his new kitchen, a remarkable painted and inscribed ceiling with magical symbols to ward off witches. The sub-divided two-acre gardens around the house have five connecting bridges over the water. There are formal yew hedges and topiary with potager, shrub roses, iris beds and a woodland area. The tour starts in the church, continuing in the garden (weather permitting) and on into the house.

The tour includes the church, garden and lower and upper rooms of the house and is followed by tea or coffee with home-made cakes and biscuits. 

Tickets £24

Visitors views:

• What a wonderful outing yesterday to Bedfield Hall - the weather was perfect and Timothy Easton a fount of knowledge & so enthusiastic! The church, followed by the garden and house, such an education. This was certainly a visit we shall be talking about for some time.
  
• We both thoroughly enjoyed the visit which was both informative and entertaining. The owner was an excellent guide and host and his talk was delivered with a touch of humour. Neither of us felt that we were being lectured, which quite often happens.
• A huge thank you to Tim at Bedfield Hall. He was a lovely warm host and so knowledgeable. I cannot put across how much we enjoyed ourselves. 
• We had a wonderful afternoon, the hall an astonishingly beautiful ancient home, a collection of interconnecting rooms on a very homely scale, filled with beautiful pictures and still very much in everyday use. Timothy Easton who owns and clearly loves the house spoke passionately of the house's history, its restoration and its place within the environment. And we were given tea and cakes! We had a memorable time.
• I just wanted to say what a fabulous visit we had to Bedfield Hall yesterday - Timothy is an exceptional host - so interesting and informative - and it is a beautiful place. The afternoon tea was also wonderful!
• We were impressed at the superb amount of information you imparted on the church and the house. The tour of the house was the most comprehensive we have done and we have been visiting the Historic Houses since moving to Norfolk 17 years ago. Also we enjoyed the excellent tea - super visit. 
• We really enjoyed your tour and fascinating talk. I am so glad that your house found someone to look after it so well! Appreciating, restoring and preserving what has gone before us is a privilege, and in a much more minor way what we try to do with our old cars! (Car club visitor)
• Thank you so much for your wonderful hospitality and a magical tour of your home and the church. I learnt so much from you. Looking around your house and listening to your explanations, so much that I have previously been told finally made sense. I really enjoyed the way you organised the tour, it brought so much architectural history as well as social history to life. I was transported. I also really appreciated the large readable sheets illustrating examples related to what we were looking at in front of us and how they related to other examples. 
• I just wanted to thank you very much for a really fascinating afternoon on Wednesday. I so enjoyed seeing Bedfield Hall (at last!) and all those incredible protective marks which I have read so much about. I had not realised how large the marks on the ceiling in the old kitchen are, and could not help thinking that they could so easily have been erased by a less sympathetic owner. The life you and your family have breathed into the house and garden is wonderful. It was a treat to see the church and its treasures too, and all topped off with tea and cake. A perfect afternoon.
• I just wanted to say a huge thank you for your wonderful tour of Bedfield Church and Bedfield Hall yesterday my highlight being the hexafoils on the 'black' kitchen ceiling. As a mathematician I am fascinated by the use of geometry to create an apotropaic mark.

Please see our cancellation policy below:
If you cancel more than two weeks before the tour is scheduled to take place, we will fully refund your ticket money excluding any phone booking fees. If it’s less than 14 days before a tour, for any reason, we regret that we cannot refund your ticket money unless we can resell your ticket(s). If we cancel at any time, we will fully refund your ticket money. Although we make every effort to avoid it, sometimes a tour has to be cancelled at short notice due to circumstances beyond our control. In this case, we cannot accept responsibility for, or refund, any consequential losses, such as money spent on travel or accommodation.

Greeted or guided by the owner
Offers Historic Stays>
No photography in the house