Panfield Hall

Panfield Hall is a great house of the 16th century, substantially altered in the 18th and 20th centuries. It is built of red brick in English bond with limestone dressings, roofed with handmade red clay tiles.

The house comprises two principal ranges. The original hall range, aligned east-west and dating from around 1500, has a small mid-16th-century extension to the south at its west end and larger extensions to the north dating from the 18th and 20th centuries. A second hall range of similar size and orientation, dating from around 1570, extends from the east end, with a stack in its south wall. A parlour or solar range formerly extended northwards from this second range as part of what was probably a quadrangular plan, but it has been truncated to approximately three metres in length. A square tower of around 1570 stands to the east of the junction between the two hall ranges. Two inserted stacks have been added, one in the original hall and one at its junction with the later hall.

The building is two storeys with attics. The original hall features a moulded brick plinth, exposed on the north and south elevations and returning at the east end into the junction with the later hall. The north elevation displays a window of three lights with three arched heads of four-centred curvature, recessed spandrels and hollow-moulded jambs, mullions and transom. Above this, on the first floor, is a similar window of two lights. Below these is a blocked large hall window with moulded jambs, four-centred head and external label; beneath it, the brick plinth is ornamented with a diaper design in limestone. The east gable contains a three-light window similar to that in the north elevation, now enclosed by the east extension.

The second hall has in its north elevation a single-light window with square head and ovolo-moulded jambs. On the first floor is a window of four lights with square head and ovolo-moulded jambs, mullions and transom. The south elevation displays a similar window of three lights on the ground floor. The remaining windows are 20th-century reproductions. A doorway in the north elevation of the second hall has a square head and ovolo-moulded jambs. The south stack comprises three octagonal shafts—two ornamental and one plain—which have been accurately restored.

The east tower rises in four stages externally, with a moulded plinth and moulded string courses at each storey. The ground storey forms a porch with an east doorway having a semi-circular outer arch, keystone and moulded imposts. Above the arch is a sunk panel containing a 17th-century stone shield of arms for Symonds of Great Yeldham, set within a flat brick pediment. The two lower storeys have two moulded brick windows on each side, cement-rendered. The third storey features round-headed windows and a doorway with an arched head of four-centred curvature opening westward into the house. Most windows in the tower are blocked.

The original western hall contains a north-east doorway, originally leading to the parlour, with roll-moulded jambs and four-centred arched head of plastered brick. At the south-west corner is a doorway into the small southern extension, with moulded jambs and Tudor head with carved spandrels. A short section remains in the north corridor of the edge of a former 'low end' gallery, moulded and carved in the same style as the roof, bearing a defaced shield of arms.

The roof of the original hall comprises three bays with arch-braced collar trusses on wallpieces, their finials carved in high relief, serpentine braces to the wallplates, trefoil and quatrefoil pierced tracery in the spandrels, two butt-purlins to each pitch, and serpentine wind-bracing. All components are moulded and unsooted. At the apex runs an incomplete line of horizontal panels with quatrefoil piercing. A fourth bay at the west end is of plain construction.

The later eastern hall has two transverse moulded beams with lamb's tongue stops. Its original roof comprises five bays with arch-braced collar trusses profiled to form a barrel-vault of four-centred curvature, originally plastered to the soffit but now stripped, and side-purlins with curved wind-bracing above. Traces of moulded plaster remain on the end walls above the level of the inserted ceiling, forming moulded panels with detached heraldic emblems. The original north wallplate features a face-halved and bladed scarf. Two tiebeams have been inserted. A 17th-century stair was introduced in the 20th century.