Image: Beaulieu palace ca. 1580, plan reconstruction, and facade of contemporary New Hall school (photos: Amaibrown – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4941700); plan published by H. Colvin, History of the King’s Works iv/2, fig. 17 (Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office courtesy of the Open Government License Agreement; contemporary photo by Amaibrown – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4942020)
Acquired: 1516
Henry purchased the estate of New Hall in 1516 from Sir Thomas Boleyn and immediately began large-scale building operations. After spending over £17,000 pounds, the house was ready for the king to visit in 1519. Excavations in 2009 revealed specialized laundry facilities and an elaborate nursery wing for his young daughter Mary. Building accounts note the creation of waterworks (a conduit), a new gallery and much painting and gilding. Henry renamed the palace “Beaulieu” and made a grouping of estates, or “honour,” about it in 1523. It was a favorite royal residence throughout the 1520s. In the later years of his reign, however, the palace seems to have been considered old-fashioned and the king did not stay there often. It became Princess Mary’s principal residence after her father’s death.
A plan survives of New Hall showing a quadrangular courtyard, a gatehouse in the south range, a great hall in the east range and a chapel in the north range (which probably also contained the royal apartments). Colvin notes the similarity of this palace to Richmond and the Tudor Gothic brickwork character of New Hall’s structure (Colvin, 174).
The house was alienated from Crown possession under Elizabeth’s reign and much of the house was pulled down in the eighteenth century, except for the north wing, which was much altered.