[3] George Vernon used his new-found wealth from marrying Northamptonshire heiress Margaret Onley to build a grand new mansion on the site of a smaller house.

[5] As with many other large estates across Britain, this increased financial burden compelled Francis Venables-Vernon, 9th Baron Vernon, to sell off tracts of land and some of the contents of Sudbury Hall.

[4][3] In 2020 Sudbury Hall closed to the public for renovations, during which the National Trust consulted 100 child "ambassadors" to redesign the visitor experience for children.

It reopened in October 2022, rebranded as The Children’s Country House at Sudbury, equipped with a dressing up and dancing area, a mirror ball, a neon sign with the words "Party like it’s 1699", an escape room experience and humorous speech bubbles hung next to portraits.

Judges expressed the view that the redesign of Sudbury Hall offered a "participatory and imaginative new bold approach to interpreting historic houses and heritage".

[11][12] Sudbury Hall dates from the Restoration era, but George Vernon's building is based on a Jacobean design, with its ornate Great Staircase and Long Gallery.

[13] The house is a two-storey red brick building fronted with a Baroque main entrance porch, with two levels of paired columns, each surmounted with a pediment.

[1][14] Between c.1872 and 1880, architect George Devey significantly modified and extended an early 19th-century servants' east wing to Sudbury Hall; this now houses the National Trust Museum of Childhood.

The house's centrally-positioned domed cap-house featured in the title shot of Yorkshire Television's children's programme The Book Tower.