East Barsham Manor is a house built for greatness - its turrets and finials created with decorative flair as a real status symbol for the Tudor family who owned it - and it's for sale for £2.75 million with Savills.
This Grade I listed Tudor country house was built to impress, literally to dazzle its visitors all those centuries ago just like it still does today.
The great seat of Sir Henry Fermor, East Barsham Manor was built in 1520-1530 as a powerful statement of the rising status of this Tudor family, well connected both in the county and at court.
For a start you approach through a fabulous gatehouse where you can still see carved out intricately in the brickwork, Sir Henry's coat of arms just as you can still see the Royal coat of arms of pre 1527 above the front porch.
It is reputed that Henry VIII stayed at the manor and walked barefoot from there to the shrine at nearby Walsingham - can you imagine that - you are walking where a great king once did and with nothing on his feet.
As a result of it being built as a status symbol, this house displays impressive decorative brickwork; everywhere you look is some intricate pattern, gargoyle or crest magnificently carved by a master craftsman long gone to this world.
The south facade has eight polygonal buttresses, brick turrets and finials and there is a marvellous group of 10 chimney shafts of 1525 bearing different patterns and decoration in carved brick and terracotta, fashionable at the time and used by Cardinal Wolsey at Hampton Court.
The house passed down from the Fermors to the Calthorpes and two more families until in the 18th century the west end had become a shell.
Throughout the 19th century the east end remained lived in and in 1922 restoration began which was completed in 1936.
The house was acquired by the current owners in 1997 and it has been a much loved home and place of study.
Inside is the most magnificent great hall with a fantastic plasterwork ceiling, minstrel's gallery, a big stone fireplace at one end and leaded lattice windows set in large stone sills.
Off this is the drawing room, also with a decorative plasterwork ceiling and stone fireplace and over on the other side, a hall with a vaulted brick ceiling and off this is a really pretty dining room, a sitting room and library.
Upstairs there are seven beautiful bedrooms, many served by large traditional bathrooms and a walk up one of the spiral staircases in one of the turrets leads to a little roof which is completely private - a perfect sunbathing spot.
Outside you have in total 4.6 acres including a sunny terrace where we sat and had coffee as well as a cottage with two bedrooms and workshops.
• East Barsham Manor is for sale for £2.75 million with Savills on 01603 229229.
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