Swaffham Prior House

History of Swaffham Prior House

Listed Building, Park and Garden

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1000396?section=official-list-entry

Small country house mostly mid-late C18 but having C17 origins. In C19 the house was extended. … In 1751 the house was acquired by Dr John Peter Allix and the house remained in this family until c1980.

The house began as the manor house of an estate called Knights which was taxed on 17 hearths in 1667.

John Peter Allix (1679-1758) appointed vicar of Swaffham Prior in 1752. By 1953 he had bought the manor of Knights so that his son Charles (1716-1794) would be considered a landed gentleman. Charles remodelled the house here. On his death he left his Swaffham prior estate to his younger son, John Peter Allix (1749-1817).

He passed the house on to his eldest son, John Peter Allix (1785-1848) who created a small park. He led local volunteers during the Napoleonic Wars and became MP for the county in the 1840s.

1848 the estate passed to his brother, a retired Colonel of the Grenadier Guards who had fought under Wellington in the Peninsular Wars and at Waterloo.

1862 the estate passed to his son, Charles Peter Allix (1842-1921), magistrate, antiquarian and railway promoter.

In 1897 the marriage of Miss Isabelle Maude Allix of Swaffham Prior House and Captain Edward Young of the Royal Engineers.

Swaffham Prior House OS 1901

1929 Newspaper reports note that the house was the home of Mr and Alexander Gemmell, owner of the winner of that year’s Grand National steeplechase at Liverpool, the horse ‘Gregalach’. (Note from DO 2025)

1945 After WWII Charles Peter Allix’s son, Charles Israel Lorraine Allix (1872-1960) returned to Swaffham House.

1982 Swaffham Prior House and park sold to Sir Miachael Marshall, son of aircraft engineer Sir Arthur Marshall.