Manual Ref* SUseHE001 Show 9 images 690
Title*

Oriel window Hengrave Hall
County Suffolk   District Council St Edmunsbury 
Civil Parish or equivalent Hengrave  Town/Village* Hengrave 
Road Bury Road 
Precise Location Hengrave Hall 
OS Grid Ref TL823687  Postcode IP28 
Previous location(s)  
Setting On Building  Access Public 
Artist/Maker Role Qualifier
Begun possibly by John Eastawe  Architect(s)   

Commissioned by

 Sir Thomas Kitson (1485-1540) and his son Sir Thomas (1540-1603) 

Design & Constrn period

 1533-1538/ca.1582 

Date of installing

  

Exact date of unveiling

  

Category
Abstract Animal Architectural
Commercial Commemorative Composite
Free Functional Funerary
Heraldic Military Natural
Non-Commemorative Performance Portable
Religious Roadside, Wayside Sculptural
Temporary, Mobile Other  

Object Type
Building Clock Tower Architectural
Coat of Arms Cross Fountain
Landscape Marker Medallion
Mural Panel Readymade
Relief Shaft Sculpture
Statue Street Furniture War Memorial
Other Object Sub Type: Coats of arms

Subject Type
Allegorical Mythological Pictorial
Figurative Non-figurative Portrait
Still-life Symbolic Other

Subject Sub Type
Bust Equestrian Full-length
Group Head Reclining
Seated Standing Torso
Part Material Dimension
Coats of arms  Stone painted  H. 2 metres W. 4 metres 

Work is
Extant Not Sited Lost

Owner/Custodian

 Hengrave Hall Weddings 

Listing status
Grade I Grade II* Grade II Don't Know Not Listed

Surface Condition
Corrosion, Deterioration Accretions
Bird Guano Abrasions, cracks, splits
Biological growth Spalling, crumbling
Metallic staining Previous treatments
Other  
Detail: Restored under the supervision of Purcell Miller and Tritton in 2001

Structural Condition
Armature exposed Broken or missing parts
Replaced parts Loose elements
Cracks, splits, breaks, holes Spalling, crumbling
Water collection Other
Detail:

Vandalism
Graffiti Structural damage Surface Damage
Detail:

Overall condition
Good Fair Poor

Risk
No Known Risk At Risk Immediate
Signatures/Marks  
Inscriptions Under left window; OPUS HOC FIERI FECIT TOME KYTSON M (Thomas Kytson made this work happen) In centre IN DIEU ET MON DROIT (God and my right the motto of the English crown) Around coat of arms HONI SOIR QUE MAL Y PENSE (the motto of the order of the garter) To right ANO DNI M.CCCC TRICESIMO OCTAVO (1538) 

Description (physical)

 Hengrave hall belongs to the new type of large country house which came to replace fortified castles with symmetrical buildings set around a quadrangle. It has a spectacular entrance with an Oriel window above the entrance decorated with three major coats of arms with smaller ones beneath. In spite of its unified appearance it must have been decorated in at least two stages. The central bay was completed by Sir Thomas Kitson- as the Latin inscription declares- in 1538. It shows the English and French coats of arms quartered and supported by lion and dragon under the English crown with Sir Thomas Kitson's coat of arms under a knight's helmet in the barackets below. Those on either side must have been added by his son the second Sir Thomas (1540- 1603) around 1582. The family coat of arms are combined with those the husbands of two of his daughters: Margaret’s with those of Sir Charles Cavendish whom she married in 1582 the year of her death and Mary’s with those Thomas Darcy Earl of Cavendish. The lower left hand field shows the coat of arms of the second Sir Thomas Kitson (1540-1603) quartered with those of his wife Elizabeth Cornwallis (1546-1628) the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Cornwallis of Brome. 

Description (iconographical)

 The central bay celebrated Henry VIII's efforts at peace-making in Europe which had culminated in the meeting with Francis I at the Field of the Cloth of Gold near Guisnes in Jun 1520 and Sir Thomas's knighthood in 1533. The decoration at the sides must have been undertaken by the second Sir Thomas around 1582 to commemorate the death of his daughter Margaret in child-birth. On the opposiite side he showed not his own coat of arms but those another daughter - Mary - who had married at about the time of her sister's death. Her marriage ended not in death but in separation in 1594 because of Thomas Darcy's jealousy of her beauty vivacity success at court and suspected adultery. That the addition was prompted by Mary's death in 1582 is suggested by the colour of the unicorns supporting her coat of arms - they are usually white not black as here for mourning. The main coats of arms at the sides are both supported by the hand of god - absent from the central panel - while the angels in the lower brackets are smaller less assertive and no longer wear Roman armour. In their account of the restoration of 2001 Purcell, Miller and Tritton note that Hengrave Hall's Oriel window is equal in splendour to similar features at Windsor Castle and Hampton Court. A lack of documentary evidence meant that work to establish the original colour scheme had to start from scratch. Over 200 paint samples were carefully lifted to reveal eight different paint schemes. There was just enough of the earliest decoration for specialist conservators to be confident about the colours used by the Elizabethan craftsmen. Modern acrylic paints were matched to these pigments resulting in a restoration celebrated with a special thanksgiving ceremony on 4 May 2001, arranged by the Hengrave Community of Reconciliation, who then owned and ran the building as a retreat and conference centre. Hengrave Hall had been privately owned until 1952 when The Sisters of the Assumption used it as a girls' boarding school. In 1974 it was taken over by the Hengrave Community of Reconciliation - a registered charity whose aims are the reconciliation of the divided churches and the divided peoples throughout the world. They were forced to sell the Hall in 2006 and it has now been restored and re-opened as a venue for weddings. 

Photographs

 Date taken:  11/6/2007
Date logged: 

Photographed by:
Sarah Cocke

On Site Inspection

 Date:  11/6/2007

Inspected by:
Richard Cocke

Sources and References

 Gage J. The History and Antiquities of Hengrave Hall in Suffolk London 1822 15-19 213 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography from the earliest times to the year 2000 eds Matthew H.C.G. and Harrison Brian vol 31 Oxford 2004 844-850 Information from Sister Jill Gracie Sisters of Assumption, Kensington www.pmt.co.uk/news/archive/architectural_detectives_reveal_secrets/ accessed 24/06/07 www.stedmundsbury.gov.uk/sebc/visit/ accessed 07/04/07 

Database

 Date entered:  20/8/2007

Data inputter:
Richard Cocke