The history of Redgrave Park

The origins of Regrave Park extend through time to the 10th Century when Ulfketel, the Earl of East Anglia gave the manor to the Abbot of Bury St. Edmunds.

Abbot Samson of the Abbey built a hunting lodge in the Park in the early 13th Century and in the mid-16th Century the manor was acquired by Nicholas Bacon who demolished the hunting lodge and built a red brick house in the Tudor style.

The manor was subsequently sold to Sir John Holt in 1702 and in the 1760s Lancelot "Capability" Brown redesigned the Hall in a Palladian style of white brick. Brown also created the parkland and formed a serpentine lake and built the delightful octagonal folly on the rise to the east of the lake and a boathouse on the lake shore. Much more information and pictures of the Hall can be found here.

During WW2 the Park was used as the 65th General Hospital, US Army. It housed 1450 beds in purpose built accommodation. This video follows four veteran nurses of World War II as they revisit England on the 50th anniversary of V-E Day. The women served in the Army with the Duke University-affiliated 65th General Hospital.