Helmingham Hall

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Helmingham Hall circa 1880.

Helmingham Hall is a moated manor house in Suffolk, England. It was begun by John Tollemache in 1480 and has been owned by the Tollemache family ever since. The house is built around a courtyard in typical late medieval/Tudor style. It is not open to the public and Helmingham is best known for its fine garden, which is open on a regular basis. It is a semi-formal mixed garden with extensive borders, a rose garden, a knot garden, a parterre and an orchard. Beyond the garden there is a 400 acre park with herds of red and Fallow Deer. The Church of St Mary on the edge of the park has connections with the Tollemache family dating back to the Middle Ages.

[edit] Treasures of Helmingham

According to an article in The Galpin Society Journal, written by Donald Gill (Vol. 13, July 1960) the Tollemaches of Helmingham own one of the only two English Opharion viols. Their opharion viol is dated 1580 and bears the label of John Rose, the renowned English viol maker of the 16th Century [1]. Only four John Rose viols survive today in major collections and the only one of them in private hands is the Tollemache familys' Opharion viol. It is believed that the Opharion viol was made for Queen Elizabeth I, who presented the instrument to the Tollemache family during one of her visits to Suffolk [2].

The "Tollemache lute manuscript" was acquired from the Helmingham Hall collections and sold by Sotheby's in 1965 to Mr. Robert Spencer [3]. It is one of the most important manuscripts of musical history. It was written in 1609 by the obscure composer of music Henry Sampson [4]¹.

¹ This work cited is from the Early Music periodical journal, Vol. 3, No. 2, April 1975, byline Robert Spencer, who owns the so-called "Tollemache lute manuscript" presently. The manuscript maintains the "Tollemache" reference despite the change of owner.