Unlike many similar priest holes, the one at Oxburgh is open to visitors. The room is small and disguised, and is reached by way of a trapdoor, which when closed blends in with the tiled floor. The Bedingfeld family clung to the Roman Catholic Church, and a priest hole was built it seems, to conceal in a hurry any Roman priest in the event of a raid. The hall is well known for its priest hole. Four towers were added to the walled kitchen garden. Other Victorian additions include the Flemish-style stepped gables, the massive southeast tower, the oriel windows overhanging the moat ( illustration, left) and terracotta chimneys. About 1835 the open end of the U was filled in with a picturesque, by no means archaeologically correct range that recreated the central courtyard.

The entrance, reached by a three-arched bridge on the north side, is dramatised by a grand fortified gatehouse, evoking the owner's power and prestige, though as fortification its value is largely symbolic it is flanked by tall polygonal towers rising in seven tiers, with symmetrical wings extending either side that reveal nothing on the exterior of their differing internal arrangements. A fine example of a late mediæval, inward-facing great house, Oxburgh stands within a square moat about 246 feet on each side, and was originally enclosed the hall range facing the gatehouse was pulled down in 1772 for Sir Richard Bedingfeld, providing a more open U-shaped house, with the open end of the U facing south.

Love on a Branch Line by John Hadfield