Located two miles (3.2 km) west from the city centre, the area covers 1,390 acres (560 hectares).

[4] Oliver St John, a Lord Chief Justice who supported Parliament in the English Civil War, bought the lease of the manor of Longthorpe and built Thorpe Hall.

In 1654 it was described by the author John Evelyn as "a stately place...built out of the ruins of the Bishop's Palace and cloisters.

A Grade I listed building and scheduled ancient monument protected by law, it contains the finest and most complete set of domestic paintings of the period in northern Europe.

Longthorpe contains a number of other listed buildings, including the old Manor House[7] and the Holy (or St.