Hengrave Hall

The chapel contains 21 lights of Flemish glass commissioned by Kitson and installed in 1538, depicting salvation history from the creation of the world to the Last Judgement.

In the dining room is a Jacobean symbolic painting over the fireplace that defies interpretation, bearing the legend 'obsta principiis, post fumum flamma' ('Resist the first beginnings; after the smoke comes flame').

One room, the Oriel Chamber, retains its original seventeenth-century paneling, in which is embedded a portrait of James II painted by William Wissing in 1675.

It is thought that some of the original panelling found its way to the Gage's townhouse in Bury St. Edmunds, now the Farmers' Club in Northgate Street.

On 5 July 1553 Mary I stopped briefly at Hengrave Hall on her way to Framlingham Castle, the home of Margaret Bourchier, née Donnington, Countess of Bath, widow of Sir Thomas Kitson and Sir Richard Long, and her third husband John Bourchier, Earl of Bath, who were loyal supporters of the Queen.

[4] During the Stour Valley anti-popery riots of 1642, Sir William Spring, Penelope Darcy's cousin, was ordered by Parliament to search the house, where it was thought arms for a Catholic insurrection were being stored.

When Sir Thomas Kitson died on 11 September 1540, he left Hengrave and all his other property to his wife, Dame Margaret (née Donnington).

Just two months after her first husband's death, Dame Margaret married Sir Richard Long (c.1494-1546) of Shengay, Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Henry VIII.

In 1887, on the death of Lady Henrietta Gage, the house was bought by John Lysaght, one of the founders of the Australian steel industry.

The Hengrave Community was dissolved in September 2005, closing its Christian and conference centre at the site, after failing to fund £250,000 for improvements.

Armorials above front entrance to Hengrave Hall
Elizabeth Lady Kitson born Cornwallis ran Hengrave Hall
Sir Thomas Kitson (1540-1602)