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Freston Tower

Near Ipswich, Suffolk

Freston Tower, Suffolk
Acquired: 2000
Architect appointed: Richard Griffiths Architects
Works instructed: On site autumn 2003
Available from: May 2004
Awards: Civic Trust 2005 - Commended

RIBA Conservation Awards 2005 - Commended

RICS East of England 2005 - Highly Commended

Freston Tower was given to Landmark through the great generosity of its owner, who wished it to have a secure future and be enjoyed by many. Set in old and undulating parkland of oaks, sweet chestnuts, cedar and beech trees, overlooking the estuary of the River Orwell the tower was built in 1578 by a wealthy Ipswich merchant called Thomas Gooding.

Freston Tower was built both to admire from the outside and to look out from on the inside – there are no fewer than twenty six windows dotted over its six storeys. Its crisp brickwork with distinctive blue diapering suggests that it was always intended to perform as an eyecatcher in the landscape. It may also have acted as a lookout tower for Gooding’s returning ships, or simply as an extravagant folly (and if so, one of the earliest in the country). It may even have been built to coincide with Queen Elizabeth’s progress to Ipswich in 1579.

Just as it did to build, this carefully designed tower demanded the highest standards of craftsmanship to restore. The entire tower was scaffolded to enable the necessary repointing. Using early photographs as sources, we re-rendered the brick mullions and window surrounds in imitation of stone, a building material so lacking in East Anglia.

The sitting room is on the sixth floor, to take advantage of unrivalled views of the River Orwell and its handsome modern bridge. Did Thomas Gooding go one stage further, as our visitors may, and sit amid the pinnacles to make a banquet house of the roof? We cannot be sure of this either, but it would certainly be in keeping with the bravura of this fine tower.

The tower was generously given to Landmark by Mrs Claire Hunt and its restoration funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage. More than a quarter of project costs were met by individual donations and our 2003 Spring Raffle.

Freston Tower is available for up to 4 people. For further information please see the 21st edition Handbook or contact the Booking Office.

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Gift Aid (pictured building: The Orangery at The Library, Devon)