Morden Hall

Morden Hall is a farmhouse with medieval origins, formerly a manor house, situated on the north-east side of Trap Road at Guilden Morden. The building displays construction spanning from the medieval period through to the 20th century, with particularly significant late 15th or early 16th-century alterations and a notably fine roof of that same period.

The structure comprises a two-storey building with attics. The ground storey is constructed in clunch, with timber framing and roughcast rendering above, interspersed with painted brick. Plain tiles cover the roofs. The building features late 17th-century or later red brick stacks with gault brick capping, including a gault brick stack to the central gable of the west elevation and another stack to the right-hand gable with offsets and upper courses rebuilt.

The plan is L-shaped, dating from the 15th century, with the clunch ground storey abutting to the north the remaining part of an earlier timber-framed open hall that was possibly originally aisled. The west front underwent early 16th-century remodelling, and a kitchen was added in the south-west angle during the late 17th or early 18th century.

The west elevation presents the principal façade, with a main north-south range and a lower-roofed southern section. Three gables face west; the southern gable is asymmetric while the two northern gables are jettied and flank the main entrance to a cross passage. The entrance features a panelled door with studded and moulded rails and muntins, topped by a rectangular fanlight containing latticed leaded lights. Both jetties carry moulded fascias, with the northern jetty displaying carved ribband ornament. An unusual two-storey projecting oratory or guarderobe projects from the east elevation, its barge boards and roll-moulded rafter ends carrying similar carving. The south elevation contains a two cinque-foiled-light window, originally unglazed and rebated for shutters, with a later doorway insertion cut through it.

The interior reveals the building's complex construction history through its exposed timber-frame. Smoke-blackened rafters, possibly reset from a 14th-century crown post roof, are overlaid by a later 15th or early 16th-century loft. The two southern bays of this roof display elaborate trusses with cross braces halved into each other and two collars; the lower collar is braced to the principal rafters while the upper collar carries braced queen struts. The roof is ceiled below the collars and features a roll-moulded cornice. The substantial ground-floor frame exhibits deeply chamfered floor joists with housed soffit tenons. The central west room has moulded wall plates, while the eastern rooms have plain chamfered ceiling beams. The passage from the cross passage to the rear passage is spanned by a wooden door head with a four-centred hollow-chamfered arch. The doorway to the first-floor oratory features moulded planks shaped to a four-centred hollow-chamfered arch, with carved spandrels set within a moulded frame. The chimney pieces and open hearths have undergone alteration; a small 19th-century chimney piece remains on the first floor, along with 19th-century staircases and other later details.

Historically, the original manor house was destroyed during the peasant uprising of 1381. It is probable that the hall was rebuilt shortly after and subsequently extended during the 15th century by the Haseldens family. Thomas Hayes refurbished the house around 1620, and it became a working farmhouse from the 18th century onwards.