Hill Farmhouse

Hill Farmhouse is a late 16th-century manor house, altered in the 19th century. The building is timber-framed, with plaster infill and a roof of handmade red clay tiles. It comprises a main range of five bays aligned approximately north-south, jettied at the south end with an axial chimney stack one bay from the north end, facing east. A further three-bay range extends to the west, featuring two axial chimney stacks, a jetty, and three facade gables to the north. A small 19th-century extension has been added to the west, and a single-storey flat-roofed extension sits in the northwest angle, dating to the 20th century.

The north elevation, which faces Tilbury Road, shows a gable end of the north-south block with 19th-century casement windows on each floor and in the attic. The elevation is adorned with 19th-century bargeboards featuring billet moulding and a 20th-century glazed door in the small extension. Ground-floor windows are also 19th-century casements. A single bracket with acanthus carving is positioned below the jetty, and three projecting facade gables each have matching brackets with foliate carving, along with the inscription "1589 IMP" on the bressumer. Original bargeboards with foliate carving and turned pendants are also present. The chimney stacks feature two and four octagonal shafts, one incorporating a blank recessed panel.

Further original bargeboards with carving and billet mouldings are found on the south gable of the north-south range, while the east gablet of the east-west range—which rises above the north-south range—has gadrooned bargeboards. The west gable displays decayed original bargeboards with billet moulding.

A six-panel door on the east elevation has a hood supported by brackets with acanthus carving, similar to those on the north elevation, and may have been relocated from there. The interior of the north-south range features axial, plain-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops, square-section joists, short arched braces to the tiebeams, face-halved and bladed scarfs in the wallplates, a blocked ground-floor window with three ovolo-moulded mullions on the west side, an exceptionally large ground-floor hearth, and oak panelling dating to circa 1600. The east-west range has moulded beams, and both storeys have exceptional height.

Historical records indicate that the manor, formerly known as Pannells le Hill, was occupied by the Pannell family from 1385 to 1613. The inscription "1589 IMP" likely refers to a member of this family.