Somerleyton Hall

Somerleyton Hall sits on the Suffolk side of the Norfolk border, about three hours' drive from London. The house you see today was rebuilt in the 1840s for the railway contractor Sir Samuel Morton Peto, to designs by John Thomas, Prince Albert's sculptor and architect, with gardens by William Andrews Nesfield. Peto's businesses ran into trouble and he sold in 1863 to Sir Francis Crossley, and the Crossleys have lived here ever since. Hugh and Lara Crossley, Lord and Lady Somerleyton, run it now as a family home that lets itself out whole.

The private-hire offer is a house party rather than a function suite. Twelve bedrooms over two floors, ten of them en suite, sleep the house party, and a butler and household staff look after it. For dinner and dancing the family names four rooms: the candlelit ballroom, the old palm house, the family dining room and the long Winter Garden, its tables laid under glass among the climbers. The kitchen cooks from the estate and from local suppliers.

Outside are twelve acres of formal gardens, Nesfield's yew maze of 1846, a heated pool, and a 1,000-acre rewilding project around Fritton Lake. The Crown used the house to stand in for Sandringham. Weddings are taken, but only a few each year; the house is at its best for a birthday weekend or a private party that wants a stately home to itself.