Essex & Suffolk Group 2025 Social at Columbine Hall

Event details

Sunday 17 August 5 - 10pm

The Suffolk and Essex Social this year will be held at Columbine Hall, near Stowmarket. Columbine Hall is over 600 years old. The owner, Hew Stevenson, will give a guided tour of the property, and head gardener, Kate Elliott, will show us around the stunning gardens.  

This will be followed by a two-course buffet dinner and cash bar for drinks. Our annual raffle to raise money for the group has prizes generously donated by Bakers of Danbury.

Columbine Hall is surrounded by a deep and wide moat, thought to be built to resist Viking raids. In 1611 Carey sold Columbine Hall to Sir John Poley, a veteran of Elizabeth I’s Spanish wars. The main staircase dates from his ownership. In 1993 the Hall and 29 acres of the original manorial lands came into the ownership of Hew Stevenson and his late wife Leslie Geddes-Brown.

The interiors have featured in World of Interiors, Country Life, Country Homes and Interiors and The Perfect English House book by Ros Byam Shaw. The gardens, which were designed by the Chelsea Gold Medal winner George Carter, have appeared in Country Living, Gardens Illustrated, The English Garden and The Kitchen Garden.

How to get there

Columbine Hall, Stowupland, 
Stowmarket, Suffolk 
IP14 4AT

Columbine Hall (postcode IP14 4AT) is approximately 90 miles northeast of London - near the town of Stowmarket and just outside the village of Stowupland - in central Suffolk.

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By Car
Near Stowmarket, turn off the A14 onto the A1120 north, towards Stowupland. At the petrol station (at Stowupland village green), turn left. Continue to the T-junction, then turn right onto Gipping Road. The drive into Columbine Hall is the first left turn after the derestriction sign just outside the village.

By Rail
While it seems remote and surrounded by parkland, Columbine Hall is only two miles from Stowmarket station (less than 90 minutes from London Liverpool Street by an hourly Intercity train and direct from Peterborough on the East Coast main line and Norwich and Cambridge).

You will need

You will need to bring suitable footwear and clothes for the garden tour.

You will need to bring cash for the bar and the raffle.

Accessibility

The dinner and parts of the garden are wheelchair accessible.

Anything we can do to make this event more accessible for you? Please email membership@spab.org.uk.

We may take photos or videos at this event to be used in future promotion, including in print and online.

All bookings are subject to our Terms and Conditions.

Photo credit: Columbine Hall © Nigel Wall