BIG THANKS to Costessey-born and bred Michael Fitt for his help with some cracking archive photos of his home village. This photo of the old Costessey Hall is just one example.
Costessey Hall was demolished in 1920. If it had only survived another 30 years then the National Trust or English Heritage would have killed to have had it on their books.Today only a belfry block survives. It looks very lonely on the 18th fairway at Costessey Park Golf Club. The Hall was the home of the Jerningham family for many generations. For complicated inheritance reasons that frankly I don’t understand, one person inherited the contents while another inherited the building. This all happened just before the First World War. Then the army requisitioned the building and did what soldiers always do to fine buildings – they trashed the place. Britain was broke by 1918 and the empty shell never stood a chance. This website is very good on the details. It calls itself “a memorial to the lost country houses of England”.* More on the Jerninghams and their Catholic faith here.
You might be interested in the posts I've written on 2 of my blogs: http://crimsonprose.wordpress.com/2013/04/06/lady-in-green/ and http://crimsonhistory.wordpress.com/2013/04/06/foundations-1-the-family/ which is the first of 6 posts about the Jerningham family. I have since discovered new evidence regarding Norman origins and am planning (hopefully before Christmas) to post the results as another 4 or 5 articles - this constitutes original research, but I'm not at all precious. I would say, though, that the conclusions reached in my last post on the subject - http://crimsonhistory.wordpress.com/2013/05/25/captain-gernegan - are in error; the new posts are intended to correct this. Hope some of this has been helpful.
ReplyDeleteWhile on the subject of Costessey, are you aware of the henge at the confluence of Tud and Wensum/ Details on I think it's the Records Office website.
Good luck. I can be reached at crispinakemp@gmail.com