Visit to Melford Hall

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It was rather cold and rainy on Saturday, 4 April. We had lunch at Lark Rise. Then, John & Mary took us to Melford Hall.

Situated in the heart of Long Melford village, Melford Hall is under the care of the National Trust. The authentic brick mansion has a wealth of history – from medieval monks to the Hyde Parker family that his home still stands.

There were lots of cars parked on the grass parking area near the grazing field when we arrived. There were lots of families with children. Like many historic houses with gardens, the Easter trail was taking place for children.

We showed our life membership cards to the receptionist. The receptionist gave us the National Trust stickers.

We started exploring the house. There were several copies of information leaflets about portraits and landscape paintings, displayed in the principal rooms, laid on the table. It included explanations of those paintings. I took two information leaflets.

Since the medieval monks times, various people – the Cordell, Savage and Firebrace families and the Hyde Parker family – have lived in the Melford Hall, and celebrities – Elizabeth 1st, Princess Alexandra, Edward, Prince of Wales; Queen Mary; Beatrix Potter, the cousin of Ulla, Lady Hyde Parker – have visited the brick mansion. All of those people have added art works and historical documents, and decorated the brick mansion.

Sir Hyde Parker 1^st, 5^th Baronet and his younger son, Hyde Parker 2^nd had distinctive naval careers. There were collections of historical naval paintings, maps and previous porcelain. Some of the big pieces of porcelain were displayed on the staircase.

Ulla Dietlef-Nielsen of Copenhagen, Lady Hyde Parker was cousin of Beatrix Potter. Beatrix Potter visited Melford Hall with small animals. We remembered seeing the turret room attached to Ulla’s bedroom. We saw the four poster bed, which Beatrix Potter used for one of her story books.

In 1942, the devastating fire gutted the north wing and destroyed adjoining roofs. Water from the firemen’s hoses also caused extensive damage to important interiors and subsequently dry-rot. Prof. Sir Albert Richardson managed to restore the wing without demolishing the surviving structure. Extensive maintenance on the exterior and interior of the house has been carried out by the National Trust. In April 2015, we were able to see a larger number of rooms with collections of the Cordell and the Hyde Parker families. We saw some beautiful furniture, e.g. the Italian cabinet with panels of painted glass depicting mythological and biblical scenes, the seaweed marquetry longcase clock, when we were looking round the house.

We strolled through the garden. I spotted a number of baskets containing eggs, carrots in the baskets. I could imagine rabbits and frogs would play in the garden – it was thought to inspire Beatrix Potter – and she did use the scene of pond and bushes for her story books.



The weather kept well in the afternoon on 4 April. Afterwards, we did the walk on the disused railway in Rodbridge near Long Melford.

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