Blickling Hall

Blickling Hall is a great Jacobean house in Norfolk, built between about 1616 and 1627 by the architect Robert Lyminge for Sir Henry Hobart, on the site of an earlier manor. That earlier house was held in the 15th and early 16th centuries by the Boleyn family, and tradition holds that Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII, may have been born or spent time here. The present red-brick mansion, with its celebrated Long Gallery and library, extensive gardens and parkland, passed to the National Trust in 1940 and is one of Norfolk's finest historic estates.

The Boleyn connection has made Blickling a focus of one of England's most famous ghost legends. Local tradition says that each year on 19 May, the anniversary of Anne Boleyn's execution, her spectre arrives at the hall in a coach drawn by a headless horseman, with the queen herself carrying her severed head. Visitors and staff also describe a more general sense of presence in the older rooms. These tales are folklore, unsupported by evidence.

Blickling's documented history — its architecture, its library and its long line of owners — is remarkable in its own right. The Anne Boleyn legend adds romance, but it is best enjoyed as tradition rather than mistaken for fact.

Blickling Estate is owned by the National Trust and open to the public, with the hall, gardens, parkland, second-hand bookshop and cafe among the attractions. Admission is charged for non-members while National Trust members enter free, and the house in particular has seasonal opening hours that are more limited than the surrounding grounds, so checking ahead is sensible.

As a conserved historic house with fragile interiors and collections, visitors are asked to follow the guidance of room stewards, take care with the building and its contents, and respect the wider estate and its wildlife.