More than half a mile south of the original market town of Cheltenham, the Suffolk estate was developed by a local hotelier named James Fisher, from about 1823, on farm land which the 15th Earl of Suffolk had bought from the Delabere family in 1808. The fields had names such as Home Piece, Home Close and the Lypiates. Part of the Suffolk estate may have been built on the former “Old Park” which was documented as early as 1606.
The oldest building at the time, Gallipot Farm, was located to the north-west of Suffolk Square. The name “gallipot” may refer to a small glazed pot once used by apothecaries for medicines, confections, or similar preparations. In 1694 the house was rebuilt and renamed Gallypott Hall. The Earl of Suffolk remodelled the building in 1808 into a Regency-style house and by 1824 it was known as Suffolk House, which stood on the site of the present-day flats of the same name, until it was demolished in 1936.
