(Image taken from the internet)

This magnificent moated house, is believed to be one wing of a much larger Elizabethan mansion.

Background History to Smallbridge Hall.

14 cent: The property we know today as Smallbridge Hall was constructed during this period of time.
The Ref (a) below indicates it must have been around 1375 or even much earlier.

Ref (a)
Having lived at Smallbridge since 1375, the Waldegrave family sold the debt-encumbered estate in 1705, and while it remained a gentleman's residence until 1750, by 1800 the Hall was occupied by a tenant farmer.
(ref Leigh Alston)

Ref (b) Richard Waldegrave acquired Smallbridge Hall in 1384
(ref Google)

Ref (c)
In 1385 Overhall and Netherhall were held by Sir Richard Waldegrave through his wife's inheritance, and were managed together with the manors of Smallbridge................................
(ref Leigh Alston)

Ref (d)
James Butler, Earl of Ormond, a staunch Lancastrian, was executed in 1461 after the Battle of Mortimer's Cross, and the two manors of Nether Hall & Over Hall passed for a short time to Anne Woodville, the sister of Edward IVth's Queen, before being granted to the Waldegraves of Smallbridge.
(ref Leigh Alston)
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Early years of the Waldegrave Family Tree
(author - I cannot vouch for its accuracy, the family tree is so complex)

Extracts from "The Wormingford Story" by Winifred Beaumont:
and
"Wormingford, an English Village" by Winifred Beaumont and Ann Taylor ,

1523: Sir William Waldegrave transformed the gentle slopes of Wormingford into a deer park and connected it to his grand red brick house by a bridge across the Stour. From that time the name Small Brigg gradually changed to Smallbridge House.

1555: Smallbridge House completely re-built by the Waldegraves.

1561: Sir William entertained his Queen, Elizabeth 1 for two days in August.
Coming from Colchester, her progress was indeed a royal one. She travelled with a dozen coaches, 300 baggage carts; foot soldiers ran behind, and the local gentry followed on horseback. It left William £250 poorer having to entertain not only the Queen but her entourage, at that time this was an enormous sum of money.
The placing of the cavalcade on Lodge Hills is interesting for house, road and bridge had disappeared long before the storyteller was born.
We know for certain the Queen visited Smallbridge, but the story of the Hunting Lodge could possibly be an example of embellished village tale.

Sir Edward Waldegrave of Smallbridge was an ardent supporter of Queen Mary and the Old Faith. In consequence he was imprisoned in the Tower by Queen Elizabeth and his manors of Wormingford and Bures given to his nephew William Waldegrave, Anthony's son.

William was an energetic and ambitious man he converted the rolling slopes of Wormingford into a deer park and rebuilt Smallbridge Hall in the style of Hampton Court. It was a fine red-brick mansion boasting forty-four hearths. Queen Elizabeth visited it on two occasions and was lavishly entertained by Sir William.
Noble houses where Queen Elizabeth stayed were permitted to display her Cypher on a Tudor Rose. This device is in Church Hall and it is thought it was removed from Smallbridge Hall.
Queen Elizabeth partook of meat and ale in Church Hall; and was so pleased she wrote her initials on a window pane with a diamond ring.
There may be some truth in the tale. Sir William's son (another Sir William) lived at Church Hall with his second wife, the Lady Jemmimah. She was the neice of Sir Francis Bacon, the Lord Chancellor, and was at one time one of the Queen's Ladies. Therefore it is possible the Queen paid a social call on Lady Jemmimah and accorded the honour of her Cypher to Church Hall out of the esteem she had for Sir Francis and his family. No matter how much money Sir William, the Elder, spent on his Queen he never quite escaped the taint of his uncle's treason.
Lady Jemmimah's husband died eight months after his father in 1610. She retired to the Dower House of Wormingford Hall but continued in control of the Church Manor and the Parsonage House

1579: On her second visit to Suffolk, she avoided Colchester where the small pox was "very bad" and probably only came into Wormingford for a "divertisment" staged in the deer park. Tradition says she visited Church Hall and partook of cold meat and drank a flagon of ale, and was so pleased that she wrote her initials on the window with a diamond ring. There is a 16th century roundel in a window of Church Hall depicting the Tudor Rose surmounted by "E.R." and a Crown. Other houses, known to have been visited by her, have similar roundels.

1588: Sir William spent a fortune on entertaining his Queen and another on raising and equipping 500 men to resist the Spanish Armada "all choice men and singularly well furnished".
Nichols, a member of the Royal household, travelled with the Queen and kept a journal of her journeys. He described in detail the grand houses visited and the wonderful entertainment's they provided but only made a sparse report on her visits to Smallbridge, over a sour footnote:
Sir Edward Waldegrave was eventually held in the Tower of London for Treason

1600: The house is known to have had a chapel dedicated to St.Anne and it also had a gatehouse.

1650: The Lodge indicated on a local map of the area

1693:The property stayed in the Waldegrave family until 1693 when it was sold.
The Waldegrave family name ceased to exist at Smallbridge.

18th cent:- The Lodge was demolished during the 1700`s
(ref Leigh Alston)

1874: The house was again rebuilt and further restored by Lady Phylis Macrae, daughter of the Marchioness of Bristol in 1932.

In 1900 a story was told in the village "how once there came a great company to visit the squire. Men on hossback, men arunning and blowing bugles and hollering and they all had flags". They galloped over Lodge Hills and "wor a wunnerful sight".
A classic example of village folk-lore where the name of the Queen and her noble host were forgotten and only the turmoil and banners remembered

Further details on the Lodge can be found at www.mount-bures.co.uk/lodge.htm

Smallbridge Hall circa 1905	Front View taken from Sandy Hill, Wormingford(2008)

During 1961 excavation on Sandy Hill, Wormingford revealed a Tudor Brick-Kiln. The bricks were very similar to those used at Layer Marney and Smallbridge Hall **

The house is surrounded by a moat and fronts onto the River Stour.

During the second world war, it was briefly used as a home for evacuees from London.

NOTE:- Smallbridge Hall is private property and has no public access. However it can be seen from the lower road to Wormingford.

**Ref Winifred Beaumont