Horringer Court

Horringer Court Estate is a large sprawling development, some once in the parish of Horringer; built by Hardy & Co of Southend, H C Janes / Barratt Homes, M Fallows Ltd and the Bury Development Company in the 1960s to 80s. The estate’s name is indelibly linked to Horringer Court a large house known to many now as Clarice House and the Bannantyne Health Club and Spa. A former servant’s house of the Hervey family of Ickworth, was purchased by prolific Bury builder, William Steggles in 1837 naming it The Red House, strangely also the name of a nearby inn on the Bury to Horringer road. Though limekilns were on site it is doubtful that Steggles was responsible for all the numerous tunnels used to extract chalk for these as by the early 1870s the workings emanating from large pits at the rear were no longer in use. A Reverend Robert Fox then bought the Red House until it was acquired by his former tenant Edward Hawkins Esq JP a gentleman who demolished it, building his fine Arts & Crafts Horringer Court residence. Financially overstretching himself he owned it up to around the outbreak of WW1; then there were several subsequent owner occupiers/renters until a local automotive dealer Rowland Todd bought the property in 1947, his wife Edith an accomplished artist. The connection with the Todd family remained until Horringer Court was sold in 1983 and again in 1992 becoming a nursing home until 1999. After a major internal refurbishment, new owners, the King family (a member collected Clarice Cliff pottery) commenced trading in 2001 advertising it as a Residential and Day Spa and Health Club until  purchased by TV’s ‘Dragons Den’ entrepreneur, Duncan Bannatyne.

Around the time of the purchase by the Todds in 1947 bats were discovered hibernating in the Horringer Chalk ‘Caves’. The existence of Daubentons and the rare Barbastelle bat species would lead to the 500 metres of tunnels being designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Altogether the site covers 3.8 hectares. According to a survey carried out by a Mr Brian Francis published in The East Anglian magazine, February 1952, the main central tunnel in the west gallery is 60 metres long with lateral off-shoots. He described the geological components of chalk deposits and that chalk is the outstanding solid formation of East Anglia, the backbone of Norfolk and Suffolk!  Another theory of his is that another pit as indicated on the map as the East Chalk pit is connected albeit in a haphazard way to the West Chalk pit, perhaps an afterthought that the two of them should be joined – an idea as he says “put into practice with some negligence”. To help dispel worries of those who may be perturbed that the workings are another ‘Jacqueline Close’ waiting to happen, a comfort is that chalk tunnels are not normally vertical as they are unsafe and rapidly deteriorate if dug in that manner plus these are not thought to be directly under the Horringer Court Estate. Many a child can remember exploring these ‘caves’ but since 1974 they have been sealed off not only to protect the bats from intrusiveness but those commonplace words ‘health & safety’ are now applied to the inquisitive. Which is probably a good idea, certainly for the bats!