Sizewell Hall
{{Short description|Christian centre in Suffolk, England}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
Sizewell Hall houses a Christian conference centre in Sizewell on the Suffolk coast, England. The estate is owned by the Ogilvie family.[http://www.burkes-peerage.net/familyhomepage.aspx?FID=0&FN=Ogilvie2-479 Burke's Peerage - Preview Family Record] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071120041458/http://www.burkes-peerage.net/familyhomepage.aspx?FID=0&FN=Ogilvie2-479 |date=November 20, 2007 }} Back in the 1950s it housed a progressive school for 7–13s. It has historical connections with a classic taxidermy collection. The present Christian conference centre is run by Sizewell Hall Ltd, a registered charity.[http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/showcharity.asp?chyno=269157 Extract from the Central Register of Charities maintained by the Charity Commission for England and Wales] In 2007, 6,500 visitors stayed there, mainly local church groups from East Anglia, national bodies and a local youth organisation CYM from Ipswich. CYM has developed an activity holiday for schoolchildren in the African Village in the Hall grounds.[http://www.c-y-m.org.uk/youth/africa.shtml CYM – African Adventure] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080129122256/http://www.c-y-m.org.uk/youth/africa.shtml |date=January 29, 2008}}
History
The Ogilvie family bought the estate in 1859, increased it to over {{convert|6000|acre|km2}} and enlarged 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)Obituary, British Medical Journal 2 February 1918, p. 164 [http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/pagerender.fcgi?artid=2339799&pageindex=1]. formed a large collection of British birds, which in partnership with the taxidermist Thomas Gunn of Norwich was mounted in cases with simulated habitats.Biography, sample images, [http://www.taxidermy4cash.com/ogilvie1.html]. The collection, now in Ipswich Museum, is seen as the best of its kind in Britain.Foreword by Howard Mendel (Natural History Museum) in C. Frost, The Ogilvie Bird Collection, An Illustrated Guide (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. Article:{{Cite web |url=http://www.articlealley.com/article_142401_22.html |title=Archived copy |access-date=2008-06-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081015180503/http://www.articlealley.com/article_142401_22.html |archive-date=2008-10-15 }}
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 the Second World War.
After the war, Sizewell Hall housed a boarding school run by a Dutch Quaker, Harry Tuyn. One of its pupils was Sheridan Morley. The school closed in 1955. It was a progressive, co-educational establishment (though 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 grounds that they were too boring.{{Cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/17/db1701.xml&page=2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070219031930/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/17/db1701.xml&page=2 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2007-02-19 |work=The Daily Telegraph |location=London |title=Sheridan Morley |date=2007-02-17 |accessdate=2010-05-23}} However, this has not been confirmed by other pupils or staff. Indeed, a copy of Kennedy's Latin Primer from Sizewell Hall School gave to Benjamin Britten and Myfanwy Piper the words for Miles's Latin Benedicite in Britten's opera The Turn of the Screw.{{Cite news |author=Valentine Cunningham |authorlink=Valentine Cunningham |title=Filthy Britten |url=http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/arts/story/0,,627778,00.html |work=The Guardian |location=London |date=2002-01-05 |accessdate=2008-06-28}}Christopher Stray 'Kennedy's Latin primer in Britten's "Turn of the Screw"'. [https://archive.today/20120706235731/http://faculty.ed.uiuc.edu/westbury/paradigm/vol2/Par2.6.Stray.rtf Paradigm 2.6 (2003), 9-13]
In the 1960s the Hall served as quarters for Taylor Woodrow as the firm built Sizewell A nuclear power station.[http://noumenacognitaanddreams.blogspot.com/2008/02/power-houses.html Power Houses.]
Sizewell Hall was used as a location for television adaptations of The Lost Prince[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/lostprince/notes_locations.html Masterpiece Theatre |The Lost Prince |Production Notes |Locations] and Lovejoy.
The grounds today include a camp site, a children's park, tennis courts, a sports hall, a squash court and an activity course.
External links
- [http://sizewellhall.org.uk Sizewell Hall]
- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/ryall/collections/72157600001510315/ Photographs of Sizewell Hall]
References
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