Latitude without the attitude: Inside Henham Park

Henham Park in Suffolk has become best known for hosting the Latitude festival – one of the UK's biggest music and arts festivals.

In July 2025, more than 40,000 people are expected to head to the site for four days of entertainment.

On Monday, the festival's organisers revealed more headliners for next year's event. The acts includes Fatboy Slim, Sting and Snow Patrol - who played the inaugural event in 2006.

The BBC looks at the history of Henham Park, and what it is used for when the festival crowds have disappeared.

Henham Park has been owned and run by the Rous family since 1544 and lays claim to being one of the largest listed parklands in the country.

An ancient oak, which remains standing, was supposedly used by Sir John Rous, an ancestor of the current owner, to hide in for three days while Oliver Cromwell's Roundheads searched for Royalists during the English Civil War.

In 1773, while Sir John was in Italy, a fire razed the old hall to the ground.

Eighteen years later, the grounds were landscaped by Sir Humphry Repton – a designer from Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, who developed about 400 English landscapes and gardens.

Today, the park contains a wide variety of trees including redwoods and two weeping larches.

Parts of the 3,500 acre (1,416 hectare) estate are Grade II listed, including Henham House and Park Farm.

Hektor Rous and his wife Sarah currently own Henham Park and live there with their three children.

Mr Rous moved to Suffolk from Australia in 2004 to take over the running of the estate.

"Suffolk's in my blood – maybe not my accent but I love this county," he told the BBC.

"People say I own this estate but it actually owns me, and my family would attest to that."

• Henham Park: Much more than just Latitude

Throughout the year, parts of the estate are used for arable farming, livestock grazing and forestry.

Annual events include Latitude Festival, and the Henham Steam and Country Show, which takes place each September.

Henham Park is also a wedding and events venue, and has holiday lets and rented homes.

In 2026 Latitude Festival will mark its 20th year and there have been no signs it will move away from Henham Park.

"You can see a cultural change in the way that people behave now," Mr Rous said.

"I remember back in the day with the first festival, people weren't as conscientious as they are now; about rubbish and leaving tents, it was a much more disposable culture.

"People appreciate nature and they want to take good care of it… It's one of the things that brings the place to life for all of us."

Mr Rous said he was considering developing a 3.5 acre (1.4 hectare) walled garden within the grounds of the park, as well as creating more holiday lets.

"I want to leave this place in a much better way than I found it," he added.

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