Giffords Hall (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Giffard's Hall

In the civil parish of Stoke-by-Nayland.
In the historic county of Suffolk.
Modern Authority of Suffolk.
1974 county of Suffolk.
Medieval County of Suffolk.

OS Map Grid Reference: TM01803743
Latitude 51.99853° Longitude 0.93823°

Giffords Hall has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are major building remains.

This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law*.

Description

The present house, which was built by the Mannock family who held the manor from 1428, is mainly of the early C16 but incorporates the remains of an earlier building. There were some alterations and additions in the early C18 and late C19. The timber-framed house is built around a quadrangular courtyard with a 2 storeyed red brick gatehouse on the south side and a great hall on the north. The outer (south) front of the gatehouse has angle turrets, stepped battlements and brick pinnacles. The windows have 4-centred heads to the lights and there is a 4-centred arch with blank tracery in the spandrels and a frieze with cusped tracery above. The front to the courtyard has 3 stepped gables. The interior of the great hall has a fine example of a double-hammerbeam roof with carved arched braces and spandrels, and a late C17 minstrels gallery with twisted balusters. (Listed Building Report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1283138
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 386534.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) SBN 023.

Books
- Goodall, John, 2011, The English Castle 1066-1650 (Yale University Press) p. 398-9
  Emery, Anthony, 2006, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 3 Southern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 102-6
  Sandon, Eric, 1977, Suffolk Houses p. 46, 202-6
  Pevsner, N., 1961, Buildings of England: Suffolk (London, Penguin) p. 207
  Tipping, H.A., 1924, English Homes, period 2 Vol. 1 (London) p. 31-50
  Copinger, W.A., 1905, Manors of Suffolk Vol. 1 p. 221-4 (tenurial history) online copy
Periodical Articles
- 2001, Country Life Vol. 195 p. 100
  Spittle, D., 1965, 'Giffords Hall, Stoke by Nayland' Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History Vol. 30.2 p. 183-7 online copy
  Girling, F.A., 1928, Journal of the British Archaeological Association Vol. 34 p. 110-16
  Tipping, H.A., 1923 Oct, Country Life
  1903 Oct, Country Life
  Torlesse, C.M., 1870, 'Stoke-by-Nayland Church' Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History Vol. 4.4 p. 198 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Williamson, Dr T., Survey of Historic Parks and Gardens in Suffolk

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

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