Without the efforts of one family who came to Suffolk 250 years ago, Woolverstone and the surrounding villages would be quite different today, a local historian has said.  

This weekend marks the 250th anniversary of Woolverstone Hall being purchased by the William Berners in 1773. 

The family was comfortably wealthy, with Berners’ great-grandfather Josias having made several wise investments, explained author and retired English teacher, Simon Pearce.  

A wealthy gentleman on the lookout for a country manor, Berners purchased Woolverstone Park estate and the attached farm at an auction held at Covent Garden for the princely sum of £11,440. 

Woolverstone Hall as we know it was built in 1776.  

“So much of the peninsula has been shaped by this one family,” explained Mr Pearce. When Berners purchased the estate it was just 350 acres. When it was sold in 1937, it covered more than 6,000 acres in seven parishes: Woolverstone, Chelmondiston, Freston, Pin Mill, Harkstead, Erwarton and part of Holbrooke.  

Ipswich Star: Estate workers at Woolverstone Hall, taken during the early 1900s. Image: Simon PearceEstate workers at Woolverstone Hall, taken during the early 1900s. Image: Simon Pearce (Image: Simon Pearce)

“From that purchase began the process of developing the village into the model village we have today,” said Mr Pearson.  

William Berners took down and replaced cottages, so that attractive, red brick homes lined the main road through Woolverstone, with large gardens for his tenants to grow vegetables.  

Indeed, the village bears many marks of the kindness shown by subsequent generations of the Berners family to their tenants.  

Ipswich Star: The thatched cottage in Church Field, built in 1738 as accommodation for the estate’s Head Gardener. The thatch has been lost in the last twenty years. Image: Simon PearceThe thatched cottage in Church Field, built in 1738 as accommodation for the estate’s Head Gardener. The thatch has been lost in the last twenty years. Image: Simon Pearce (Image: Simon Pearce)

Ipswich Star: Holbrook Lodge, which was built in 1860. Image: Simon PearceHolbrook Lodge, which was built in 1860. Image: Simon Pearce (Image: Simon Pearce)

Ipswich Star: The cat house, built c. 1773 on the site of the previous chapel. The building is famous for its link with smugglers, with a white cat supposedly placed in the window when the coast was clear of Excise Men. Image: Simon PearceThe cat house, built c. 1773 on the site of the previous chapel. The building is famous for its link with smugglers, with a white cat supposedly placed in the window when the coast was clear of Excise Men. Image: Simon Pearce (Image: Simon Pearce)

The village hall was built by the family, originally to be used for prayer while the aisle of the village church was being extended.

Accommodation for widows and rest homes for the clergy were paid for by the family, which can still be seen today. 

The Berners also reduced rents during bad harvests and were known to give their tenants coal during particularly hard winters. 

This weekend, an exhibition of the story of the Berners family and their impact on the peninsula will be shown at Woolverstone Hall. The exhibition has been organised by Mr Pearce and the Friends of Woolverstone group.