Keswick Hall

I was on a Ramblers walk recently that went past Keswick Hall and I was intrigued about its history.  The worsted weaver Joseph Gurney came to Keswick Old Hall in 1747 but when the fabulously wealthy Hudson Gurney (who inherited brewing as well as banking money) took over the estate in 1811 he built the current Keswick Hall in the Regency style.  When Hudson Gurney died in 1864 his estate passed to his nephew John Henry Gurney of Earlham who had been tainted by the collapse of Overend, Gurney & Co Ltd. Much later, Keswick Hall was to become the new home of trainee teachers who had been displaced from their training college in Norwich’s College Road when it was bombed in the Baedeker Raids of 1942.  On the 15th December 1950 Keswick Hall became the sole site of the local teacher training establishment with the closure of Wymondham Training College. The East Wing of the new college was formally opened with great pomp and ceremony in 1951 by Queen Elizabeth (soon to be known to all as the Queen Mother).  In the early 1950s the Royal Norfolk Show was held there.  It served as a Teacher Training college until 1981 and currently is private apartments.  Here is a picture of Keswick Hall: