The Depperhaugh
Recently I obtained some copies of 3 Estate Plans from the Suffolk Record Office. Two of which were of the site of the Depperhaugh which was built where previously a farm called Slades Farm was situated.
The first plan, dated 1766, was of 'The Lands of Rev. Thomas D'Eye called Pipes' (a previous name for Slades Farm?). On investigation Rev. Thomas D'Eye was Rector of Palgrave, he was born in 1732, died in July 1766 and was buried in Oakley. He was the son of Nathaniel D'Eye and Mary Cullum of Thorndon. He married Mirabelle Stebbing but had no children and left his Hoxne Estates to his sister Martha.
Martha married, firstly, Edmund Betts and after he died remarried Thomas Wayth (or Wythe), a widower, in 1789. In 1751 Martha and Edmund had a daughter called Martha who married John Worth, an apothecary, of Diss in 1772. John was a widower when he married Martha. They had a son, John, in 1775.
When Martha Wayth died, in 1801, she left the Hoxne Estates she had inherited from her brother to her grandson John Worth.
The second plan showing the Depperhaugh site is later, but undated, and states that it shows the Property of John Worth Esq. Probably drawn up when he inherited in 1801.
John Worth lived at Oakley House and was a Captain in the Royal Navy. In 1802 he married Catherine Sinclair, daughter and heir of Captain Patrick Sinclair, R.N., of Durran, Caithness. They had one child, a daughter called Mary Catherine Sinclair Worth, in 1811, who married Captain Baldwin Wake Walker in 1834. She became the heir of John and Catherine Worth.
Captain John Worth died at Oakley House in 1835 and his wife Catherine died in Conduit Street, Kensington in 1849.
Captain Baldwin Wake Walker went on to become an Admiral and later, in 1856, was created 1st Baronet Walker of Oakley House.
The 1843 Tithe Apportionment states that the site of the Depperhaugh was owned by Mrs Walker and farmed by John Hall, however, the draft version of the apportionment states that it was still owned by Mrs Worth. John Hall is recorded as farming 204 acres and continued to be recorded here on the 1841, 1851 and 1861 censuses.
In 1861 there was an exchange of property between George Edward Frere and Sir Baldwin Wake Walker where Sir Baldwin acquired land forming part of Gravel Pit Farm in exchange for land forming part of Slades Farm. In 1862 there was a further exchange of property between Sir Edward Clarence Kerrison of Oakley Park and Sir Baldwin Wake Walker. Sir Baldwin acquired Park Farm in exchange for Oakley House and land in Oakley. Acquiring the land he needed to create the Depperhaugh Estate.
Admiral Baldwin Wake Walker built The Depperhaugh in c1868/9 having presumably demolished Slades Farm. The house was described as being of white brick, built on 2 floors with 22 rooms.
In April 1869 a vestry meeting was held in Hoxne for 'the purpose of assessing the new house and buildings at Chickering called "The Depperhaugh", the property of Sir Baldwin Wake Walker Bart.' It was agreed that the gross assessment sould be £120 and the Rateable value £100.
Sir Baldwin retired from the Navy in 1870 and died in 1876. Lady Walker continued to own The Depperhaugh but chose to rent it out. She died in Campsall Hall, Doncaster in 1889, age 77. She and her husband were both buried in Hoxne.
She was succeeded by her son Baldwin Wake Walker, born 1846, the 2nd Baronet, who married Fanny Augusta Cowper Coles in 1877. They had one child, a daughter. The 2nd Baronet died in 1905 and was succeeded by his brother Francis Elliot Walker, who became the 3rd Baronet. He died in 1928.
The property was leased to various people after Baldwin Wake Walker died. They included Rev. Ancrum Lawson (1885), Rev. Robert Trousdale (1887-1888), Alfred Castellian, a retired Commission Merchant, and family (1888 - c1891), Frederic William French (1892 - c1895) and Thomas Brooks Charles West (1896 until his death in 1897). Thomas was a breeder of Hackneys.
In 1900 the property was empty but Frederic William French returned there from 1903 to c1916. Frederic was a Tea Merchant and later a J.P..
During this time there were several abortive auction sales of the Depperhaugh Estate. Firstly in 1894, when the Estate consisted of 884 acres and included Park Farm, Chickering Farm, Hole Farm, Rookery Farm, Stradbroke and various other cottages. In also included the Copyhold of the Manor of Hoxne Hall with the Priory, the Manors of Chickering with Wingfield, Wingfield Trumbolds and Stradbroke-with-Stubcroft. The bidding reached £15,000 but remained unsold.
The next occasion was in 1914 when it was being auctioned for Sir Francis Walker. It then included the Stud Farm and Wingfield Farm in addition to those properties in 1894. Again it was not sold, however, in 1919, after WW1, it was auctioned again and sold to Mr John Gyford for £13,060 with an additional charge for timber of £1550. From about 1921 it was run as a private school by Major Harry Raven M.A. J.P.
The Depperhaugh House, Cottage and 55 acres came up for auction again in 1935 and, again, was unsold with a top bid of £2400.
Auction Advertisement 1935
Depperhaugh Billiard Hall
Depperhaugh Study
The new owner in 1937 was Rev. Thomas Henry Thompson Evans. He remained there until 1945 running it as a tutorial establishment.
In 1946, Alfred Henry Michell, a property developer, purchased the Depperhaugh Estate and moved in with his wife and son, Charles Henry Walter Michell, and lived there until it was sold in 1968.
The sale in 1968 included the following properties:
- The Depperhaugh, Hoxne, Suffolk
- Depperhaugh Cottages, 1 Chickering, Hoxne, Suffolk
- Depperhaugh Cottages, 2 Chickering, Hoxne, Suffolk
- Depperhaugh Cottages, 3 Chickering, Hoxne, Suffolk
- Depperhaugh Cottages, 4 Chickering, Hoxne, Suffolk
- Reading Green Farm, Reading Green, Hoxne, Suffolk
- Park Farm, Hoxne, Suffolk
- Hole Farm, Hoxne, Suffolk
- The White Bungalow, Green Street, Hoxne, Suffolk
The Depperhaugh Estate Sale Plan for 1968
It was purchase for £105,000 by Herman Simper who had been a tenant at Park Farm for the previous 22 years. Within a year he had sold the 'The Depperhaugh' mansion which was to become a nursing home. Herman sold the remaining estate in 1976.Article provided by Pauline Rimmer