" Belchamp Hall was built by the third John Raymond in 1720 and is lived in now by his direct descendants.

It is a Queen Anne period house of rich red brick with a front nine bays wide and of two storeys, below a cornice and solid parapet. The attic rooms have dormer windows, three to the front and one each to the other three sides. Pilaster strips alternating with downpipes bearing the family crest break up the facade vertically. The windows have emphasised keystones and neat apron pieces below the sills. The central bay has a little pediment and narrower pilasters confined to the upper storey.
On the first floor, bay windows forming powdering chambers have been added to the two principal bedrooms on the north and south of the house. This was done in Georgian times when hair powdering and wigs were the fashion. The dressings are all of a red brick said to be Dutch and the walling is of cream-coloured stock.

The house, which faces south-east, looks down to the 14th century brick and flint parish church of St. Mary with its famous mediaeval wall paintings. The view extends across the valley of the Belchamp Brook (which runs into the River Stour) to the village of Bulmer. "

" The front porch leads into the central hall, hung with family portraits and from which an elegant staircase leads to the upper rooms. To the right is the dining-room. This was originally two rooms and is panelled with oak and chestnut thought to have come from the original Elizabethan house which, it is believed, was pulled down when the present house was built. Family portraits by well-known artists hang on the walls. One by Cornelius Janssen depicts the first John Raymond who bought the house and estate from Sir John Wentworth in 1611. Elizabethan portraits of Sir William and Lady Harris, whose daughter Frances married Oliver Raymond, M.P. for Essex in the two Protectorate parliaments, hang each side of the door.
Sir William commanded a ship in the battle against the Spanish Armada and relics which he captured then, including an iron Treasure Chest with its original huge key, are still in the house. "

" The beautiful drawing-room, the other side of the hall, has white panelling and is hung with charming family portraits and 18th Century mirrors. The marble fireplace and iron fire basket are identical to those in the dining-room opposite.
Leading out of the drawing-room is the smoking room, the principal feature of whch is the 17th Century chamber organ, given by Handel to the owner's great-great-great aunt, Lady Dundonald, who in her youth was one of his pupils. Her portrait, by Gainsborough, in now in America. "

" Next door the Library with its old leather books contains a French marble statue of Diana and Actaeon, sent by King Louis XVI to Tippu Sahib, Sultan of Mysore. It was captured in 1799 by another ancester, Colonel Valentine Blacker, after the Siege of Seringapatam in South India, where Tippu met his death.
Panels of armorial glass recording various family marriages have been inserted in most of the downstairs windows. The earliest dates from the end of the 17th century, while the latest is of the present owner's parents. "

" Outside, large lawns border the central drive with its circular sweep round an old sundial in front of the house. To the right is a long raised terrace walk, originally planted with an avenue of Scots Firs (to be seen in the portrait of the owner's grandfather in the hall). These have now been replaced with smaller cherry trees. The terrace leads on the south to a small early Victorian summer house with a formal marble floor and windows made of early coloured glass depicting pastoral scenes, flowers and vegetables. Nearby the old dry pond is being converted to a sunken garden. At the other end of the terrace, an old ruined folly stands on a mound which is now being replanted.
A great copper beech, one of the largest in the county, stands to the right of the front gates. Other trees include a big Wellingtonia, cedars, Scots firs, cherries, cornus, liriodendron, yew, eucryphia, ginkgo, walnut, oaks, birches, etc.
A clipped yew hedge divides the front garden from the less formal gardens on the south side of the house. Here there is a wide stone terrace with tables and chairs for sitting out, and herbaceous borders containing a variety of plants, roses, shrubs and small trees. There are also climbing roses and other climbing plants, a magnolia grandiflora and a very old mulberry tree which still produces a big crop of fruit every year.
A second yew-bordered enclosure shields a small swimming pool, and here again there are borders, roses, climbing plants and big Nevada roses backing a statue of Pan. At the back of the stable block and coach houses is a large walled kitchen garden which has a long central pond and fruit trees trained on the walls. The house is open by appointment on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and some Bank Holidays. Please apply to Mr. and Mrs. Michael Raymond, Belchamp Hall, Belchamp Walter, Sudbury, Suffolk C010 7AT. Telephone Sudbury (0787) 72744.

Reduced rates for Parties. "

" Tipu Sultan (born Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu,[5] 1 December 1751 – 4 May 1799),[1][6] also known as the Tiger of Mysore,[7] was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India. He was a pioneer of rocket artillery. He introduced a number of administrative innovations during his rule, including a new coinage system and calendar,[11] and a new land revenue system, which initiated the growth of the Mysore silk industry.[12] He expanded the iron-cased Mysorean rockets and commissioned the military manual Fathul Mujahidin. He deployed the rockets against advances of British forces and their allies during the Anglo-Mysore Wars, including the Battle of x and Siege of Srirangapatna. "

" Tipu remained an implacable enemy of the British East India Company, sparking conflict with his attack on British-allied Travancore in 1789. In the Third Anglo-Mysore War, he was forced into the Treaty of Seringapatam, losing a number of previously conquered territories, including Malabar and Mangalore. He sent emissaries to foreign states, including the Ottoman Empire, Afghanistan, and France, in an attempt to rally opposition to the British. "

" The siege of Seringapatam (5 April – 4 May 1799) was the final confrontation of the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War between the British East India Company and the Kingdom of Mysore. The British, with the allied Nizam Ali Khan, 2nd Nizam of Hyderabad and Marathas, achieved a decisive victory after breaching the walls of the fortress at Seringapatam and storming the citadel. The leader of the British troops was Major General David Baird, among the lesser known allies were the Portuguese in Goa and Damaon.[1] Tipu Sultan, the de facto ruler after the death of his father, who had usurped the throne of Mysore, was killed in the action.[2] The British restored the Wodeyar dynasty back to power after the victory through a treaty of subsidiary alliance, Krishnaraja Wodeyar III was crowned the King of Mysore. However, they retained indirect control (British paramountcy) of the kingdom's external affairs. "

" Valentine Blacker CB (19 October 1778 – 4 February 1826), was a lieutenant colonel in the Honourable East India Company and later Surveyor General of India. "