About Gresham Hall Estate
Today Gresham Hall Estate is a small, family-run business offering a selection of luxury self-catering accommodation in addition to the glampsite. You’ll meet Edward and Georgy during your holiday – along with their young children and Slipper, their super-friendly Border Terrier. She usually heads up the welcome party, often with a ball in her mouth which she’d be delighted for you to throw! The 1200 acre estate boasts woodlands thriving with wildlife, bountiful walks to discover and beautiful gardens to admire. It is still a working farm where the family grow wheat, barley, sugarbeet (which goes to British Sugar) and peas (field to Birds Eye factory in just 90 minutes). They also provide grazing for horses, sheep and farrowing pigs.
But life on the estate wasn’t always like this.
The origins
Gresham Hall was built by Colonel Batt between October 1907 and April 1908. His family crest remains over the front door at Gresham Hall, in the form of a bat! See if you can spot it. Local materials and labour was used from Gresham Estate and the bricks were all baked in a kiln on the estate.
Colonel Batt generated his own electricity, a very impressive feat at the time! This served the property for many years. In 2019 an eco-friendly biomass boiler was installed to ensure oodles of hot water and heating for our guests.
The Clifton-Brown family bought the estate in the 1970s and went on to piece it back together bit by bit. Between 2017 and 2018, they completed extensive renovations. So today the luxurious holiday accommodation has the best of both worlds – Edwardian architecture, with all the mod cons! It’s been a happy family home where Edward and his sister Jacqueline spent a fabulous childhood. Now Edward and Georgy’s children are enjoying life on the estate too.
Flora and fauna
Our extensive woodlands are home to lots of wildlife. There’s roe deer, pheasants, partridge, hares, guinea fowl, ducks and plenty more. Throughout springtime the woods are awash with aconites, snowdrops, daffodils and bluebells. This spectacular display is then followed by incredible rhododendrons and azaleas, for which Norfolk is so famous.
Just a short walk from Gresham Hall and Hall Cottage is a spectacular private valley. It is festooned with cream daffodils when they are in flower. In fact, the estate used to be the largest producer of daffodil bulbs. So come spring, many of the fields throughout the grounds are edged with a vibrant palette of creams and yellows. On one of the estate walks you can still see the legacy of a huge swathe of yellow left after a trailer turned over many moons ago.
Farm Life
We also have grazing for horses and sheep and farrowing pigs with gorgeous wiggly piglets. You might be lucky enough to see them if you’re here at the right time of year. In addition to the potatoes which go to Lamb Weston (who supply McDonalds amongst others), we also grow oil seed rape, wheat, barley, sugarbeet and peas. The sugarbeet goes to British sugar (the factory is on the edge of Norfolk) and our peas go from the field to the Pinguin factory in just 90 minutes.
You really will experience countryside living at its finest during your holiday at Gresham Hall Estate.
