Sutton Place, along with Layer Marney has been described as the most important English house of the years following immediately after Hampton Court. Sir Richard Weston, a protétgé of Henry VIII, was granted the Sutton estate in 1521, but there is no exact record of when the building was begun or when it was finished, however the King was a guest there in 1533. The house which is of brick, two storeys and very symmetrical, was built as a nearly square house, round a courtyard with many Italianate details