Great Saxham

Great Saxham Hall is a two-storey Palladian house situated at Great Saxham, just outside Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, England. It is a Grade II* listed building. (Buildings and monuments can be listed as Grade I, Grade II, or Grade II*. Grade II* buildings are particularly important buildings of more than special interest; only 5.5% of listed buildings are Grade II*.) The hall was designed by Joseph Patience and dates from 1798. Its most striking feature is the large, generous portico, which has a pediment with arms and large columns. Inside, fine painted ceilings are of note, along with a room 'reputedly' (this has not been officially confirmed by experts) decorated by the 18th-century artist Angelica Kauffman R.A.The house is owned by Colonel and Mrs David Gordon Lennox and is occasionally opened to the public. In most cases, a condition of accepting an English Heritage grant is that the owner provides access to the general public so that they can see any completed work, paid for by that grant. As of 2014, the property is rumoured to have been purchased by a property developer, so its future as a whole architectural example is in doubt.The gardens are reputedly by Capability Brown and feature a polygonal lodge house, a Moorish temple (The Umbrello), and The Tea House. The early 19th-century Moorish temple – 'The Umbrello' – stands within the grounds of the estate, and is Grade II* listed, but The Umbrello has been on the English Heritage 'HERITAGE AT RISK' register, list entry number:1031410, for a number of years. This important architectural structure is one of only a few remaining garden buildings constructed of Coade Stone. The Umbrello has been in a serious state of decline for many years, and is in very poor condition: the roof is missing, and ingress of water is rusting the structure's iron core. In 1998, the owner submitted a Listed Building Application to dismantle the Umbrello and resurrect it in a new location but the application was withdrawn and the work was not carried out. The Tea House structure is a late C18, possibly by Capability Brown as part of his possible landscaping work at Great Saxham Hall. The structure is Grade II listed; it is octagonal, has stuccoed brick walls, and fish scale slated pyramid roof. There are gabled porticoes on four sides with Tuscan columns supporting a pediment with slated roof. Above each is a circular window with moulded architrave and arched head. Within each portico a niche with semi-circular head; one contains instead, a pair of three-panelled doors. The Tea House is in poor condition.

Little Saxham is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of The Saxhams, in the West Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England. The village appears as Sexham in the Domesday Book and as Saxham Parva in 1254. In 1961 the parish had a population of 92. On 1 April 1988 the parish was merged with Great Saxham to form "The Saxhams".

The Saxhams is a civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. Located around two miles west of Bury St Edmunds, the parish covers the villages of Great Saxham and Little Saxham, as well as the Saxham Industrial Estate on the A14. In 2005 its population was 300. The parish was formed in 1998 from "Great Saxham" and "Little Saxham" and part of Risby.Until the Beeching Axe, the parish was served by the Saxham and Risby railway station on the Ipswich to Ely Line.

Thingoe Rural District was a rural district in the county of West Suffolk, England between 1894 and 1974. It was named after the ancient Hundred of Thingoe ("thing-hoe" – "assembly-mound") and administered from Bury St Edmunds, which it surrounded.

Chevington is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in East Anglia, England. Located around 10 km south-west of Bury St Edmunds, in 2005 its population was 630, reducing to 602 at the 2011 Census. The parish also contains the hamlets of Broad Green and Tan Office Green.

Barrow is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk, England, about eight miles west of Bury St Edmunds. According to Eilert Ekwall the meaning of the village name is grove or wood, hill or mound. The Domesday Book records the population of Barrow in 1086 to have been 27.

Hargrave is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England, located about 7 miles (10 km) away from south west of Bury St Edmunds. Lying at the crossroads from Ousden and Lady's Green (west) and Chevington (east). Barrow, Suffolk (north) and Wickhambrook (in the south). The village has approximately 120 dwellings, two churches and a village hall (built and funded by the village).

Saxham & Risby railway station was a station serving Risby in the English county of Suffolk. It was opened by the Great Eastern Railway in 1854 following the line's extension from Newmarket to Bury St Edmunds. It was not particularly near either of the places it served, with Risby being about a mile to the north and Saxham a couple of mile to the south. Its main purpose was to serve agriculture in mid-Suffolk.At its peak during the period 1860 to 1890 there was a station master and three other members of staff. From 1929 onwards the four station staff were replaced by a 'Porter-in-charge' until its closure in 1967. Freight services ceased several years earlier, on 28 December 1964, along with other stations along the line. Saxham and Risby was one of four stations on the line between Ipswich and Cambridge which closed in 1967 following modernisation due to dwindling passenger numbers - the others were Higham, Fulbourn and Six Mile Bottom. After closure, the south platform and waiting room was removed in 1970, whilst the north platform and the main station building remained derelict until it was demolished in the late 1980s.Today, only a small part of the north platform remains alongside the station car park. A railway terrace house still stands along Station Avenue and has been converted to private residence, however most of the surrounding area has been transformed into an agricultural industrial estate.According to the Official Handbook of Stations the following classes of traffic were being handled at this station in 1956: G, P, F, L, H, C. and there was no crane. Calor Gas had a private siding there.

Risby is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England, located around 3 miles (4.8 km) west of Bury St. Edmunds, north of the A14 road. It is believed that the village was founded in about the tenth century, presumably on the strength of its having a Norse name, possibly Rȳðs - by "farm settlement at a clearing" and identical to Ryssby in Sweden. The traditional division or Hundred in which it stands is Thingoe, also a Norse name. The village now has a population of 840, increasing to 866 at the 2011 Census.

Ickworth Church (more formally known as St Mary's Church, Ickworth) is a former parish church in Ickworth Park near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, England.

Thingoe was a hundred of Suffolk, consisting of 31,850 acres (128.9 km2).One of the smaller hundreds of Suffolk, around 9 miles (14 km) wide and 11 miles (18 km) long, Thingoe contained the borough of Bury St Edmunds on its eastern border, though the town was considered a separate jurisdiction. The remainder of the hundred consisted of the land to the west of Bury St Edmunds. The River Lark rises in the hundred, flowing north to the River Little Ouse. The name derives from the words thing, a Norse word meaning "assembly", and howe, again Norse, meaning detached hill or mound.

Denham is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. Located around five miles west of Bury St Edmunds, in 2005 its population was 170, increasing to 171 at the 2011 Census. The parish also includes the hamlet of Denham End, as well as the remains of Denham Castle, a motte-and-bailey structure. The parish council is shared with neighbouring Barrow. The mediaeval church of St Mary's was restored in 1846 and is a grade II* listed building. In the chapel is a large canopied table monument to MP Sir Edward Lewkenor and his wife of Denham Hall who both died in 1605 of smallpox.