Dalham Hall is a country house and 3300acres estate, located in the village of Dalham, Suffolk, near Newmarket, and 13km (08miles) west of Bury St Edmunds.
Owners of the Dalham estate have included:[1]
The manor was not the principal residence of any family until acquired by the Stutevilles, the first of whom is likely to have established Dalham Hall. Simon Patrick (1626–1707), the Bishop of Chichester (1689–1691) and Bishop of Ely (1691–1707), purchased this estate at Dalham in December 1702, and commissioned the building of the present Dalham Hall. John Affleck Esq. acquired the estate from the Bishop's son in 1714.
After remaining in Affleck's family (the Affleck baronets) for nearly 200 years, in 1901, the estate was bought by Cecil Rhodes, on the evidence of photographs, and tales of its game shooting prowess.[2] After Rhodes died in 1902, before taking possession, his brother Francis William Rhodes and his family inherited the hall, and erected a hall in the village in Cecil Rhodes' memory.[3]
The estate was bought in 1928 by Laurence Philipps, a shipping magnate who established what became known as the Dalham Hall Stud. The house was three storeys high until a serious fire of 1954, when the top floor was removed and the roof reconstructed.[4]
In 1981 Major Jim Philipps sold the stud to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates. After the major died in 1984, the rest of the estate was held in trust by his heirs until July 2009, when it was sold for £45 million to Sheikh Mohammed via estate agents Bidwells.[5] The Hall is listed Grade II on the National Heritage List for England.
