Building record LWL 028 - Lawshall Hall

Lawshall Hall adjacent to church. Mid 16th Century house (II*LB) with 1557 date stone. Possibly originally moated? - early maps not checked.
Hall was said it had been a monastery before the Reformation. It was built of brick, the walls being in some places six feet thick. It was also said that there was a passage that went to Coldham Hall, about a mile in distance. In the parish register under the year 1578 is an entry: - "It is to be remembered that the Queens highnesse in her progresse riding from Melford to Bury, 5 Aug. 1578, dined at Lawshall Hall to the great rejoicing of ye said parish and the country thereabouts".
Formerly landscape gardens/park to N and model farm to S (both now mainly gone).
Manor belonged to Abbot and convent of Ramsay, Hunts between 1022 and the Dissolution.
June 2002: for 'A Brief Study of the Architectural History of Lawshall Hall, Suffolk' see (S2).
Nov 2002: evaluation in advance of redevelopment revealed footings of a demolished range of late 15th and 16th century ranges of the building. Site of a manorial hall since the 11th century - early medieval features were found relating to this continuous occupation. Details in (S3).
For further details on the architectural history of the building see (S4).
May 2010: A research (non-commercial) evaluation was carried out to re-examine and increase upon previous (2002) evaluation results, by re-excavating and extending two of the first phase trenches and opening two new trenches. A series of walls and a cobbled yard surface were identified, in addition to a small number of cut features. All the indetified features were dated to the later medieval and post-medieval period (S5).