Autumn is a wonderful time to explore the Ickworth Estate, nestled into the Suffolk countryside, and a stone’s throw from Bury St Edmunds. Its history can be traced back to 1086, when the Domesday Book records a small settlement of 16 households, owned by the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds. It was originally managed as a working estate, and from the 1700s, it became home to the Hervey family, who built Ickworth House to display works of art, including paintings by Titian and Gainsborough.
For the past seventy years, the Estate has been managed by the National Trust. The gardens are stunning and beautifully leafy, with trees including Redwood, Oak, Ash, Yew and Fir. In 1910, Lady Theodora Hervey renovated the Rotunda with electric lights, hot water boilers and new bathrooms, to improve the living conditions of the servants.
I discovered the wonderful writing bureau in the servant’s quarters. The downstairs quarters are laid out as they would have been in the 1930s. The hall is full of games – card games, bagatelle and tiddlywinks, as well as a piano and a spread of papers. The entrance upstairs includes a temporary aerial display of letters which the family wrote as correspondence to each other whilst on their travels.
F C MALBY 
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