Sudbury Hall exterior with brick effect above stucco.

Drawing Room with full field and frame panelling and servants' jib door.

Looking down the main staircase.

Sudbury Hall

Sudbury Hall is a country residence for the wealthy, probably members of the landed gentry. When not in London or in a spa town like Bath for the season, they would have entertained lavishly. Sudbury Hall is equipped to enable this sort of lifestyle and is a classic double fronted dolls house² with large rooms either side of a central stair well. It has an imposing columned porch, a grand main staircase with galleried landing and large, stylish reception rooms.

The main rooms are on the two central floors connected by an elegant double height entrance hall and main staircase while the servants' quarters in the basement and the top floor bedrooms, are accessed by cupboard stairs.

The house is decorated throughout with colours appropriate to the Georgian period. On bespoke orders the rooms you can choose your colours from the Farrow & Ball colour card.

Sudbury Hall Photographs

Exterior

Image and exterior style was important to Georgian property owners. In towns, grand palace fronted terraces were built with separate houses behind the façade. Sudbury Hall is a free-standing country house and must make its own style statement. If the dolls house is plain painted, it simulates smooth render over the entire exterior. If the brick front panel finish is chosen, this is disguised with stucco to the top of the ground floor to simulate a more desirable, but expensive, stone construction. You can choose the exterior finish for the front panel from: plain painted; exposed brick; or, more grand, ashlar masonry.

Sudbury Hall façade with optional brick finish above the horizontally banded
stucco.

The upper façade is finished with a substantial coving with handmade corbel detail and a parapet consisting of solid and turned balustrade sections. Behind the parapet is a shallow angled slated or tiled hipped roof.

Close-up of cornice with hand made corbels.
Sudbury Hall slated, hipped, roof behind a parapet with sections
of turned balustrade.

Outside there is an apron covered with grouted flagstones on which stand grand steps leading up to the front door. These can be lifted away to enable the front panels to be opened and to reveal the servants' door into the basement. The house has two opening external doors (a further servants' one in the back wall of the basement is non-opening).

Sudbury Hall front steps.
Sudbury Hall with one front panel opened to reveal fully decorated and lit
interior.
Hipped roof with individually laid slate-effect tiles and real terracotta
chimney pots. Sudbury Hall can also be accessed through a side-opening panel.
Sudbury Hall stucco.
Sudbury Hall plain painted.

Interior

By late Georgian times house designs were routinely accommodating the needs of domestic staff with separate stair cases for servants and dedicated servants' working areas. In Sudbury Hall, the main reception rooms are situated on the ground floor, one of which can be attended discreetly by servants moving from the service room in the basement via a back staircase and jib door. The family and their visitors need not be exposed to the scurrying and clatter of the staff bringing food and drinks.

The two main reception rooms are panelled to dado rail height and one with additional frame and field panelling on the walls between the dado and ceiling coving. Unless you choose otherwise, the doors to the ground and first floor rooms are stain varnished and have elaborate door cases with pediments. All internal doors are fitted with turned brass door knobs. Skirting is fitted throughout and coving to the ceilings of the ground, first and some of the second floors. There are grouted flagstones in the basement while the rest of the house has scribed floorboards with lifting boards that conceal the wiring for lights. The seven plasterwork fireplaces are fitted with a hearth stone.

Sudbury Hall interior.
Sudbury Hall showing side-opening panel.
Sudbury Hall showing right-hand door cranked open.

Basement

Sudbury Hall basement floor plan.

The basement of Sudbury Hall is divided into three rooms: a kitchen, a scullery and a servants' hall. Servants would have worked and may have slept in the basement. If there were male and female servants, the men may have slept in the basement and the women in the poorest rooms at the top of the house.

The right hand basement room is fitted out as a kitchen with bread oven and inglenook arch into which you could place a range. The left hand basement room is a scullery with a washing copper and another inglenook arch, in which you could put another range or open fire. The middle basement room is the servants' hall and would be a bustling place when the family were entertaining guests upstairs. Cupboard stairs connect the servants' hallway to the main entrance hall above and to the main reception room via a jib door set into the panelling of the right hand reception room.

Scullery with washing copper.
Servant's Hall with stairs leading to ground floor and dummy
back door.
Looking through the servants' entrance into the servants' hall.
Basement kitchen with opening bread oven.
Bread oven.

Ground Floor

Sudbury Hall ground floor plan.

The ground floor of Sudbury Hall has two large reception rooms, one either side of the entrance hall and main staircase. The right hand reception room has frame and field panelling and a jib door that opens into a back hall leading to the back stairs to the basement. Servants could come and go dicreetly using the jib door. The back hall is also accessed via a door from the entrance hall. Usually customers opt for white painted skirting, although some prefer to use one of the room colours, which was very fashionable in Georgian times. It was quite common in Georgian times to use a dark brown on skirting boards, especially in hard wearing areas of the house, to hide the scuff marks. This is not generally to 21^st century taste!

Dining Room with wainscot panelling, elaborate coving and plaster fireplace.
Dining Room door with elaborate overdoor.
Entrance Hall and main staircase.
Door open to reveal servants' jib door giving back stairs
access to the basement.
General view of ground floor.
Sudbury Hall drawing room.
Servants' door set into frame and field panelling.

First Floor

Sudbury Hall first floor plan.

The first floor of Sudbury Hall consists of a morning room and a master bedroom set either side of the first floor landing. The rooms have stain-varnished doors in elaborate door cases with pediments. A door leads from the back of the first floor landing to a cupboard staircase that leads to the second floor. The cupboard staircase is complete and has winding steps visible through its door at the bottom.

Morning room. In this house the customer wanted the chimneys on the
end walls not the back(which is standard).
First floor landing.
Cupboard stairs (with winding steps) from first to
second floor.
Stain-varnished Morning Room door in fancy door case with
white painted pediment.
First floor master bedroom.
View from master bedroom doorway into landing.

Second Floor

Sudbury Hall second floor plan.

The second floor of Sudbury Hall contains several smaller rooms which is where the children and female servants would have slept. One of the bedrooms has an adjoining dressing room. An opening side panel provides access and light to the dressing room. Intriguing views are available across the back of the house from the opened side panel through the door of the dressing room, through the galleried second floor landing to the bedroom beyond.

Left hand second floor bedroom with corner fireplace.
View from second floor bedroom through door to dressing room behind.
Large second floor bedroom on right hand side of house.
View from dressing room through door to galleried second
floor landing and large bedroom beyond.
Sudbury Hall second floor landing.
Dressing room behind the second floor left hand bedroom.

Stairs

Sudbury Hall entrance hall with main stairs.
Main staircase.
Stair bracket detail.
Dizzy view looking from first floor landing down main staircase.
Cupboard stairs (with winding steps) from first to
second floor.

Gallery

With thanks to my customers for allowing me to use their photographs.

Mrs B. Sleaford.
Mrs B. Sleaford.
Mrs B. Sleaford.
Mrs B. Sleaford.
Mrs B. Sleaford.
Mrs B. Sleaford.
Mrs B. Sleaford.
Mrs B. Sleaford.
Mrs B. Sleaford.
Mrs B. Sleaford.
Mrs B. Sleaford.
Mrs B. Sleaford.
Mrs B. Sleaford.
Mrs B. Sleaford.

Lighting

From Autumn 2011 all fully decorated Anglia Dolls Houses include a package of lights as standard with a quality Smallworld digital transformer and Easy Wire fused distribution strip. If you prefer to specify your own choice of lights I can build these in for you. Wiring is concealed behind a false back panel, under lift up floorboards and also down the chimney breasts. The way that the wiring is done makes it easy for you to add further lights at a future date. See the Electric Lighting Datasheet for more details of the standard package of lights included with this house if purchased fully finished.

If you would like more information about this dolls house please call or email me.