Sizewell Hall

Sizewell Hall is a Christian conference centre in Sizewell on the Suffolk coast, England. The estate is owned by the Ogilvie family.[1] It was for some time the home of a progressive school. It has historical connections with a classic taxidermy collection.

The present Christian conference centre is run by Sizewell Hall Ltd, a registered charity.[2] In 2007, 6,500 visitors came to stay there, mainly local church groups from East Anglia, national organisations, and a local youth organisation CYM from Ipswich. CYM has developed an activity holiday for school children in the African Village[3] in the Hall grounds.

History
Sizewell Hall, 2005

The Ogilvie family bought the property in 1859, expanded the estate to over 6,000 acres (24 km2) and extended the house. Mrs Margaret Ogilvie as a benefactress set up a research award (Readership in ophthalmology) at Oxford University From this house not far from RSPB Minsmere, the ophthalmic surgeon Fergus Menteith Ogilvie (1861–1918)[4] formed a very large collection of British birds, which in partnership with the taxidermist Thomas Gunn of Norwich was mounted in cases with beautiful simulated habitats.[5] The collection, now in Ipswich Museum, is seen as the best of its kind in Britain.[6]

Sizewell Hall was rebuilt after a fire in 1920. Glencairn Stuart Ogilvie developed nearby Thorpeness as a resort. The Ogilvie family moved out when the army commandeered the Hall during World War II.

After the war, Sizewell Hall housed a private school run by a Dutch Quaker, Harry Tuyn. One of its pupils was Sheridan Morley. The school closed in 1955. The school was a progressive, co-educational establishment. (It is not to be confused with the progressive Summerhill School at Leiston nearby) It has been claimed that pupils could study what they liked, if they liked and that subjects such as Geography, Maths and Latin were not taught on the ground that they were too boring.[7] However, this has not been confirmed by other pupils or staff. Furthermore, it was a copy of Kennedy's Latin Primer from Sizewell Hall School which gave to Benjamin Britten and Myfanwy Piper the words for Miles's Latin benedicite in Britten's opera The Turn of the Screw.[8][9]

In the 1960s the Hall served as quarters for Taylor Woodrow as the firm constructed Sizewell A nuclear power station.[10]

Sizewell Hall was used as a location for the television adaptation of The Lost Prince[11] and for Lovejoy.

The grounds of the Hall today include a camping site, a children's park, tennis courts, a sports hall, a squash court and an activity course.

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References
  1. Burke's Peerage - Preview Family Record Archived November 20, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  2. Extract from the Central Register of Charities maintained by the Charity Commission for England and Wales
  3. CYM - African Adventure Archived January 29, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  4. Obituary, British Medical Journal 2 February 1918, p. 164 .
  5. Biography and sample images, .
  6. Foreword by Howard Mendel (Natural History Museum) in C. Frost, The Ogilvie Bird Collection, An Illustrated Guide (120 pp., Long Melford, 1989), p. 7. (ISBN 0-9512263-2-0), also G. Maynard, Guide to the Ogilvie Collection of British Birds (Ipswich Corporation Museum, Ipswich 1938), pp. 3–5. Online article:"Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-10-15. Retrieved 2008-06-21.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. "Sheridan Morley". The Daily Telegraph. London. 2007-02-17. Retrieved 2010-05-23.
  8. Valentine Cunningham (2002-01-05). "Filthy Britten". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2008-06-28.
  9. Christopher Stray 'Kennedy's Latin primer in Britten's "Turn of the Screw"'. Paradigm 2.6 (2003), 9-13
  10. Power Houses.
  11. Masterpiece Theatre |The Lost Prince |Production Notes |Locations

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