Haybridge Hall. This fine country house is found about 12 miles NW of Cambridge in the east of England.

Easy
rail connections from London and Birmingham. Open Monday-Saturday, 9a.m.- 5.30p.m. Entrance fee 9 for
adults, 4 for children. Under-5's free. Automated tour guide recordings available in (1)
languages.
History. (2)

was the original name after construction in 1482. Though the amount of land connected to

the house has (3)

the (4)

, the structure itself has remained remarkably untouched. The last major addition was

which the British Army added as a radio room in May, 1941.

The original owners, the Hawken family, only owned the house for around a (5)
Yardley family from the (6)

before the aristocratic

of England bought it and changed its name to Haybridge Hall.

The Yardley family lived there for around two centuries but then the property lay (7)
years until a local author William Hoaten purchased the house. One (8)

for about 60

survives of a church that

collapsed in the house's grounds during this period of abandonment.

The Hoaten family left with the onset of World War Two having spent a considerable amount of money
restoring the house to former glories. Local legend says that Churchill spent a few days in the house towards the
end of the (9)
.
The Present Day. After spending a lot of money (10)
Haybridge Hall. Last year, over (12)

the property in the 1970s, (11)

now runs

people visited the fine property and Haybridge Hall is now a

highly profitable property.

1. Built at the end of the 15th Century, Haybridge Hall was built by Jake Hawken, a wealthy businessman.
2. Mr Hawken made a lot of money thanks to being successful in wood exports.
3. The Dawson Conservatory was added by the British Army in 1931.
4. Churchill spent two weeks at Haybridge in 1944 while preparing for the Normandy Landings.
5. The Hawken family sold the house to a local family ten years after it was built.
6. The Yarding family then held onto Haybridge Hall for about 200 years.
7. The church in the house grounds was drawn in 1728 by a local priest called Timothy Warsden.

8. William Hoaten bought Haybridge in 1782 and spent three years renovating it.
9. The house is now run by British Heritage, who spent ten million dollars renovating it.
10. If you want to hear about the ground floor furniture, you need to press button two.

Welcome to Haybridge Hall and thank you for choosing to use our Guide-O-Matic to help you make the most
out of your stay here. This guide is available in six other languages. Just ask at the ticket office. The general
history of the house is as follows:
Haybridge Hall was constructed at the end of the 15th Century and was originally called Hawken Hall after the
first family who owned it. Jack Hawken was a local businessman who had become wealthy thanks to success
with wool exports. The house has changed very little in the last 500 years with the exception of the Dawson
Conservatory which can be found behind the ticket office. This was added in 1941 when the British Army was
using Haybridge Hall as a headquarters for the 8th Army. Churchill is said to have spent two nights at
Haybridge in the main guest bedroom in the build up to the Normandy Landings in June 1944.
The Hawken family only managed to hold onto this fine property for around a decade before they had to sell up
and the name Haybridge was used by the aristocrats who bought it. The Yardley family were not from this area,
but from the north of England. They owned Haybridge for some 200 years and turned the surrounding area into
productive farmland where various crops, from wheat to potatoes, were grown.
The Yardley family left Haybridge in 1722 and the property was left empty for some sixty years or so, falling, in
the meantime, into quite a state of disrepair. It was during this period of neglect that the small church built on
the grounds of the house in the early 16th Century, crumbled into ruins. Little is known about this church
although one drawing of it survives. A local artist, Timothy Warsden, sketched the church in 1728, a mere six
years after the Yardley family moved out.
Haybridge Hall's destiny seemed to have been that of long-term neglect and eventual destruction but the
renowned local author William Hoaten bought Haybridge in 1784 and spent three years and a considerable
amount of money renovating the mansion. By now, the amount of land belonging to the property had been
considerably reduced and consisted of the few acres you see today.
The Hoaten family stayed at Haybridge until the beginning of the Second World War when the British Army
took over the property. After the war, the surviving members of the Hoaten family decided it would prove too
costly to move back into Haybridge Hall and so the property came to be owned by the charitable organisation
English Heritage, who runs it to this day.

English Heritage undertook an extensive renovation operation in the 1970's, costing over ten million dollars.
The aim of this work was to return Haybridge Hall to something of its glory days when it was owned by the
Yardley family for two centuries. Specialist builders and craftsmen from all over the world were employed in an
attempt to reconstruct the best possible example of a 17th Century country house.
Haybridge Hall remains to this day one of the finest examples of British renaissance architecture and the
furnishing within gives an authentic idea of what country life was like three to four centuries ago in this country.
Last year, over 60,000 visitors took the same path through Haybridge Hall that you yourself are taking today.
Now, please press button 2 if you would like to hear something about the first floor furniture. Press button 3 if
you would like to hear more information about the gardens of Haybridge Hall.