SENNOWE PARK

HX Suggested Reasons to Visit

One of England’s great Edwardian houses, Sennowe Park remains privately inhabited and offers wholly bespoke experiences.

About

Sennowe Park stands as one of the last great houses built before the First World War brought profound changes to British society. The original house was built in 1774 and was transformed between 1905 and 1907 by George Skipper, who had become Norfolk's leading architect of the day. Writer and poet John Betjeman said of Skipper: ‘he is altogether remarkable and original. He was to Norwich what Gaudi was to Barcelona’. At Sennowe, Skipper drew upon his classical inclinations in an imaginative and rich articulation of Edwardian design. Country Life has described Sennowe as ‘among the most magnificent and perfectly preserved of all Britain's great Edwardian country houses’, whilst The World of Interiors wrote that Sennowe Park is 'an ebullient mix of Continental and English architecture that best expresses the fabled confidence of the early 1900s.'

The house was then owned by Thomas Albert Cook, grandson of Thomas Cook who founded the famous travel firm in the mid-19th century. Known as 'Bert', Cook left his two brothers running the family business and came to Norfolk to indulge his tastes for shooting in the manner being cultivated at Sandringham and Holkham, as well as carriage driving and sailing. Sennowe was intended to provide an ideal setting for entertaining on a grand scale and for hunting and shooting parties, situated in a fashionable part of Norfolk. To this day, the house retains much of its original internal decorations and furniture: a time capsule of this bygone era.

One of Sennowe's most spectacular features is the 50-foot flower-filled Winter Garden, a glass conservatory built as an addition to the house in response to Cook's belated demand for a ballroom. The conservatory features a marble-columned fountain and is both elegant and spectacular, with a display of pelargoniums, plumbago and ferns throughout most of the year, making it an extraordinary space for entertaining.

In the early 20th century, Italianate terraces on three levels were laid out by George Skipper, to include two domed open pavilions and elaborate statuary. The result is Norfolk's only Edwardian Italianate garden, a series of broad terraced lawns overlooking rolling parkland that sweeps down to the lake.

The estate features a distinctive water tower, or campanile, standing 120 feet high with spectacular views across Norfolk from its belfry. The estate is noted for its conservation, woods and wildlife, with some 200 recorded species of birds. Sennowe is a working sporting estate and wildlife sanctuary, maintaining the traditional countryside character that inspired its creation.

Sennowe Park embodies the glamour of the Edwardian age, that brief, golden period before 1914 when country houses were built as grand monuments to leisure, sport and entertaining. As documented in Clive Aslet's The Last Country Houses, Sennowe represents a world that would soon vanish forever with the outbreak of the First World War.

This impressive Edwardian house remains in the Cook family and is occupied today by Bert's great-grandson, Charles Temple-Richards, and his wife Virginia. Sennowe Park is a private family home and is not open to the public. However, it offers exclusive and bespoke experiences for discerning guests.

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