Woolverstone Hall

1555

The Manor of Wolverston had been held by the Wolferston family for at least three hundred years and had jurisdiction in several villages on the Shotley Peninsula: “Wolverston and Chelmyngton and in towns of Freston, Holbrook, Herkestede, Erwarton and Kyrketon.” 

However, the Wolferston family line came to an end in 1555. Between this date and the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Manor of Wolverston was overseen by six different families. One of the last of those to purchase the manor in 1720 was John Tyssen, a City of London merchant. He paid £3,850 for which he gained Woolverstone Manor and  293 acres. The Hall itself was built of brick and now known by the name “Wolverstone Hall”. The Manor was mortgaged. 

When Tyssen was declared bankrupt in 1722, following disastrous losses when the South Sea Bubble burst, he also owed £3,500 to a John Ward of Hackney, to whom he assigned the mortgage. John Ward was subsequently declared bankrupt in 1726, owing the huge sum of £58,000. In the preceding years he tried to hide his wealth from his creditors. There followed a number of court cases by creditors to get their money back. One of the ways that Ward tried to hide his wealth was to convey property to third parties under the covert understanding that they would be returned to his son. One of these properties was the Manor of Woolverstone Hall which was conveyed to Philip Jones and Francis Pyle; one part for 500 years and the other for 200 years. The premises were valued at £2,000 per annum. He also assigned debts to these two men. He bought the title of the office of Clarencieux King at Arms, an officer of arms at the College of Arms in London, for his son.

“The bankrupt, with a view to conceal his effects from his creditors, and to defraud them of their just debts, did, about the year 1725, purchase the office of Clarencieux King at Arms, in the name of his son, the respondent Knox Ward, for which he paid above £3000.”

Two years later, in 1728, Knox Ward, John Ward’s son, claimed ownership of the manor and occupied it. He is recorded as patron to the church at Woolverstone and Dr Thomas Tanner in the same year. Knox Ward set about purchasing more land around the Hall and creating a park, coming into conflict with other land owners as he did so. He also proposed exchanging land with the church presumably as part of his plan to create a park. During his stewardship, he stood for the Parliamentary seat of Ipswich, but was not elected. He also was taken to court for failing to honour a promise of marriage to a Miss Sarah Holt of Hackney.

Matters took a new course at Woolverstone. On 2 October 1741, the Ipswich Journal reported that Knox Ward, Clarencieux King at Arms, had died “at his seat at Woolverston” from a “violent bleeding of the nose”. In May of the following year, 1742, the contents of the hall were put up for sale “by hand”: 

“All the Genuine HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE…consisting of rich silk and Worsted-Damask furniture, in Beds, Chairs and Window Curtains; likewise, a curious Billiard Table compleat; a Chamber Organ, Harpsichord and Spinet; withal Sorts of useful Kitchen Furniture.”

Soon afterwards, William Berners leased the substantial manor at Woolverstone Park, Suffolk. Most likely, William lived at Woolverstone from late 1742 after the sale of Knox Ward’s personal effects. He was certainly living at Woolverstone by 1745 when he is mentioned as a beneficiary of Charles Gostlin’s will dated the same.

The ownership continued to be disputed and the legal arguments disappeared into the Court of Chancery not to be resolved until after nearly fifty years when, in 1773, the Manor of Woolverstone was ordered to be sold. In 1773, William Berners was at last able to purchase the Woolverstone Park estate and farm, in all about 350 acres. The lot comprised 200 hundred acres of land with the Hall and a further 150 acres of an adjoining farm. It was bought at an auction held by “Langfords” of Covent Garden, on Friday 13th August 1773, for the sum of £11,440. This price was recorded in the Ipswich Journal on 21^st August 1773.

A year later, William bought the Manor of Erwarton on the death of Lady Chedworth.

Although, try as he might, William could not revive the manorial courts or rights, so he set about a process that would last for the next 150 years of buying up the surrounding land and property to create a vast estate eventually extending to over 6,000 acres.

Woolverstone Hall – 1776

William Berners had 30 years to think how he could develop the Woolverstone Park estate. He had shown extraordinary patience and belief that one day Woolverstone would be his. In the end he decided to demolish the old hall at Woolverstone and build himself a fine, new hall as befitted a wealthy gentleman of the time with a glorious view down the wide River Orwell. He engaged John Johnson, architect and surveyor, whom he had worked with since 1766.

Elements of his childhood home, More’s Place, are reflected in the design of Woolverstone Hall. 150 years later, Mary Alice Spencer Warwick, William’s great-great-great granddaughter, would write: “he perpetuates the souvenir of his boyhood home on a larger scale” .

Few details of the building process remain apart from some undated plans that were found at Woolverstone. By 1777 Johnson was presenting a drawing of Woolverstone Park to the Society of Artists which suggests it must have been largely complete by then. 

Woolverstone Hall is described as one of Johnson’s “more ambitious…domestic interiors.”

The Palladian style mansion is constructed of Woolpit brick faced with Portland stone on the ground floor. Coade stone is used for ornamentation. There are seven bays in the principal front with a pediment, supported by four Ionic columns. One and half-storey wings were connected by a colonnade. The bow front on the garden side overlooks the River Orwell as it widens towards Butterman’s Bay and Pin Mill. The bow sides to the central block, shown on the plans, were not included in the final building.

The interior of the Hall complements the design of the exterior. The main door leads to a vestibule and then into the hall. From here it is possible to look straight through the drawing room to the river.  Two staircases rise either side of the hall. 

The grander of these is decorated with Johnson trademark honeysuckle scroll balusters. 

The hall itself is decorated with oval figures of female figures. 

Niches either side of the door to the drawing room originally contained statues. 

Johnson designed the ceilings in two of the rooms on the ground floor; the drawing room and the dining room. 

The dining room shows panels emanating from a central motif similar to other of Johnson’s work, as does the marble chimney piece in the same room. 

The bedroom floor landing, showing archways, is flooded with light from a dome around which the attic floor is designed. Beneath the dome there are alternate oval and rectangular plaster panels. The rectangular panels are decorated with urns and arabesques on either side. Surmounting these panels is an acanthus frieze; a style Johnson used in other houses. Above the frieze and below the skylight are arranged garlands with drops. The dome itself is designed with bold colours. 

The old Jacobean hall was demolished. This building became the stable block and was also designed by Johnson. 

At this stage in Woolverstone Park’s evolution, there is no evidence of there being formal gardens; the deer, sheep and cattle came right up to the windows as part of an informal or naturalistic pastoral landscape. 

William Berners took great interest in the the game on his estate and which was a huge attraction. The land had been neglected for many years but now he was determined to bring back the habitat and the game birds. He engaged a gamekeeper to look after his interests. 

Having built his own country estate, William had to furnish it in a becoming style. He had to invest in books for a library that would be commented upon by visitors, and paintings to adorn the walls that would attract favourable comment. William also began the family tradition of generosity to workers on the estate which would be continued and amplified over the next 150 years.

Mary Berners died 1^st January 1782 while she was in London staying at their residence at Hanover Square. She was buried in the Berners’ vault at St Andrews, Much Hadham, Hertfordshire. On his death in 1783, William Berners was also buried in St Andrew’s on 26^th September 1783. He was 74 years old.

At the time of William Berners’ death, New River Company shares earned dividends of £350 19s 11d, with his four shares earning around £1,400 a year – a sizeable income. The Berners Estate was built out with leasing arrangements for 200 houses providing additional income. He had inherited a huge property portfolio courtesy of his step-father, Charles Gostlin. William’s will is silent on any income or connection with his wife’s estates in Jamaica. 

For further information on this listed building please go to: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1204081

There is a small, interesting booklet to be found here: https://www.whs-archives.net/docs/BriefHistory.pdf