...Stunningly beautiful 16th century moated Hall set in 10 acres of gardens in the tranquil Suffolk countryside
The Hall's Historical Connections
Pride of place belongs to the Gosnold family, who lived here for 300 years from c.1400 first as tenants, then as owners.
Bartholomew Gosnold (1571-1607) voyaged to the New World, where in 1602 he discovered Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, which he named after his infant daughter. In 1607, 13 years before the Mayflower landed, he returned to found Jamestown colony in Virginia, the first permanent English-speaking settlement in America.
It has been said that the two voyages were planned at the hearthside of Otley Hall.
Traditionally, Gosnold's name has had to yield first place to Captain John Smith, one of the many East Anglians he recruited for the second voyage. According to his own account, Smith was rescued from death by Pocahontas, the beautiful daughter of Indian Chief Powhatan. She died in 1616 while on a visit to England and is buried at St. George's Church in Gravesend, Kent.
The literary repercussions of Gosnold's 1602 voyage were also considerable: Shakespeare's final play The Tempest was inspired by reports of the voyage. Indeed, it is through the Gosnold connection that Edward Everett Hale was able to identify Prospero's Island as Cuttyhunk, one of the Elizabeth Isles off the coast of Massachusetts, where Bartholomew Gosnold built the first known English house in America. Descriptions of the Island in the accounts of Brereton, Archer and Gosnold himself are reflected clearly in Shakespeare's text; to such an extent indeed, that Hale claimed Caliban as a Massachusetts Indian.
May 2007 saw the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, Virginia. All at Otley Hall were very pleased to take part in the anniversary celebrations.
Read about Gosnold America 400
Read about our Historic Gardens
Otley Hall welcomes enquiries not only from the UK but from all over the world -
click here to email us
Pride of place belongs to the Gosnold family, who lived here for 300 years from c.1400 first as tenants, then as owners.
Bartholomew Gosnold (1571-1607) voyaged to the New World, where in 1602 he discovered Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, which he named after his infant daughter. In 1607, 13 years before the Mayflower landed, he returned to found Jamestown colony in Virginia, the first permanent English-speaking settlement in America.
It has been said that the two voyages were planned at the hearthside of Otley Hall.
Traditionally, Gosnold's name has had to yield first place to Captain John Smith, one of the many East Anglians he recruited for the second voyage. According to his own account, Smith was rescued from death by Pocahontas, the beautiful daughter of Indian Chief Powhatan. She died in 1616 while on a visit to England and is buried at St. George's Church in Gravesend, Kent.
The literary repercussions of Gosnold's 1602 voyage were also considerable: Shakespeare's final play The Tempest was inspired by reports of the voyage. Indeed, it is through the Gosnold connection that Edward Everett Hale was able to identify Prospero's Island as Cuttyhunk, one of the Elizabeth Isles off the coast of Massachusetts, where Bartholomew Gosnold built the first known English house in America. Descriptions of the Island in the accounts of Brereton, Archer and Gosnold himself are reflected clearly in Shakespeare's text; to such an extent indeed, that Hale claimed Caliban as a Massachusetts Indian.
May 2007 saw the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, Virginia. All at Otley Hall were very pleased to take part in the anniversary celebrations.
Read about Gosnold America 400
Read about our Historic Gardens
Otley Hall welcomes enquiries not only from the UK but from all over the world -
click here to email us