Catton Place

The Grand Tour 

Catton Place is set back from the pavement, behind bollards linked with Grade II-listed chains. Behind these is a drive providing two off-street parking spaces. The front door, set within a grand entrance flanked by Ionic columns and crowned by a fanlight beneath a dentilled pediment, opens to a wide hallway. Here there are flagstones underfoot and a sculptural staircase in front, and a half-glazed door at the rear looking onto the garden and beyond.

The formal drawing room has its original raised and fielded panelling and its original sash windows and shutters. A marble fireplace surround provides a focal point for the room. There are large interconnecting doors – a Victorian addition – which fold flat, allowing the drawing and dining rooms to become a single space for parties or events. The dining room has a marble fireplace with mouldings and roundels typical of the period, as is the fine historic wallpaper. The kitchen has its original flagstone floor, and windows with views over the garden. Also on the ground floor is a cloakroom, study, utility room and large walk-in cupboard. A door leads down to the cellars where there are four brick barrel-vaulted rooms with pamment floors rooms, three of which were set up to store wine and beer. The rear door opens from the hallway to a gravelled part of the garden, perfect for al fresco dining.

The staircase leads to the first floor. It has wonderfully decorated tread ends, ornamental twisted balusters and a moulded mahogany handrail. A large and striking Venetian window sits between the first and second floors framing far-reaching views over the garden and woodland beyond, while flooding the space with light. Above the staircase is an impressive stuccoed ceiling with, in Pevsner’s words, “exuberant plasterwork” in the Rococo style.

On the first floor are the two main bedrooms with garden views. The principal bedroom is an exceptional space with panelling and a highly decorative cornice edged underneath with a gold leaf border. Above a marble fireplace is a mounted scrolled pediment. The other main bedroom has identical dimensions, original fireplace and historic wallpaper copied from an 18th-century Mayfair bedroom. On this floor there is also a sitting room which could be a bedroom, all have their original windows, shutters and wooden floors. Two bathrooms with Carrara marble floors, both fitted with baths, bidets and separate showers, serve these two bedrooms, between which is a second study.

From here, a second staircase, under which is a large airing cupboard and hot water tank, leads to the second floor. This storey has two bedrooms and a bathroom in between.

The Great Outdoors 

The house has a picturesque west-facing garden which catches the sun most of the day, laid out formally with deep herbaceous borders on either side of a wide gravelled pathway. The beds are stocked with a wide variety of flowers and shrubs usually at their peak from May to July, but many provide colour from earlier to much later in the year. Beyond these borders are parterres, in a pattern copied from Highgrove House, with low-growing roses contained by box hedging. There is a trellis on the right with climbing roses and to the left – beyond a yew hedge – a pergola produces an annual display of laburnum.  A grassed path behind the garden leads past a neighbour’s garden to a useful area with a garden shed, composting bins and a circular washing line, tucked away from the house’s line of sight. Between the path and woodland is an area of rough grass underplanted with hundreds of daffodils which makes a truly spectacular display in the Spring, when they burst into colour.

Out and About

The woodland merges with that of Catton Park, the latter significant due to the fact that it was esteemed landscape designer Humphry Repton’s first paid commission. Repton was prolific throughout the 18th century, designing over 400 gardens and is considered to have been one of the last great designers of the classic phase of the English landscape garden. Catton Park is Grade II*-listed, and highlights include a wander through the park’s wildflower meadow, or an exploration of its woodland with its impressive variety of ancient oak trees.

The city of Norwich is architecturally important, with its Norman castle, two cathedrals, numerous churches and other medieval and later buildings still intact. The Lanes, a series of Medieval streets in the centre, was a winner of the Great British High Street of the Year Award. The covered market in the centre is highly regarded and is perhaps the best of its kind in England. The Norfolk Club housed in a building, with a façade similar to that of Catton Place, is a leading provincial private members’ club. The city has many cultural, entertainment and dining opportunities, including restaurants, such as Benedict’s.

The Norfolk Broads—a network of mostly navigable rivers and lakes—is a short drive from the house. The beaches and smart villages on the Norfolk Coast AONB are also close at hand. The Suffolk coast is also surprisingly near, noted both for its beauty and its cultural attractions, including Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh, Southwold and Walberswick.

There are many excellent schools in Norwich, including Norwich School, Norwich High School (for girls) and in the county, Greshams and Wymondham College. Norwich is also home to its University of the Arts and the University of East Anglia, as well as the Sainsbury Centre located within its campus.

The city has brilliant transport links, with frequent fast trains reaching London Liverpool Street. There is also a handy local airport for domestic and international travel.

Council Tax Band: F