Monument record LRM 002 - Letheringham Abbey (PMed)

Letheringham Abbey: Great House built by Sir Robert Naunton, Secretary of State to James I, after the converted priory building adjacent to the church was burnt down circa 1610 (S1)(S2). New house was on a new site (TM 2682 5842) to the S of the priory. A sketch of the house by Robert Hawes circa 1712 shows it to have been E-shaped with two wings and a central porch. There were elaborate Dutch gables on the wings and either side of the porch on the main block (S3). The materials of `Part of a large Timber Building called Letheringham Abbey.... viz one wing 80 feet in length, in width 25 feet and 21 feet high, and Part of the Body or Centre of the House of the same width and height and 58 feet in length; with the bricks of four large stacks of chimneys, Cellar walls and pinning; the flat tiles of the roof, iron window bars and also a large quantity of old wainscot, a very good oak staircase, with rail and ballusters, good deal and wainscot doors'; advertised for sale 1770, the buyer to dismantle (S4). The S wing of the house survived in an altered form down to 1947 (S5) or 1949 (S6). Pen and ink sketch of circa 1850 reproduced in (S3). House described by E Farrer in 1916 (S2). The panelling seen and described by Farrer was removed to Brodick Castle, Isle of Arran, Scotland in 1919 (S3). Only the walled enclosure within which the house stood and some farm buildings survive today. Almshouses: Adjoining the E side of the churchyard (TM 2687 5856) is a long early C17 brick range, now used as a farm building. These were built by Sir Robert Naunton, as appears from his will, 1635: `I doe give towards the mayntenance of seaven poore woemen that are to inhabite in myne AlmesHouse built by mee at Leatheringham' (S5). Listed Grade II. Mr Barnard has questioned identification as almshouses - possibly stables or? August 1996: Scheduled area revised to include C17 walled garden - details in (S7).