Baythorne Hall

TL 74 SW BIRDBROOK BAYTHORNE END

3/8 Baythorne Hall 7/8/52

I

Raised aisled hall, c.1300, altered in C16 and C20. Timber framed, plastered with frame partly exposed, roofed with handmade red clay tiles. 2-bay aisled hall aligned NE-SW, aspect SE, with 2 contemporary 2-bay crosswings jettied to the front. Inserted C16 axial chimney stack, and inserted C16 floor in hall. 2 rear extensions, C19/20. 2 storeys. Ground floor, central tiled gabled porch, 2 bay windows, 2 casement windows, all C20. First floor has 2 late C18/early C19 double-hung sash windows of 16 lights, and 2 more in large gabled dormers. Plain windows in gables (attics unused). Exposed framing on NE crosswing, with conspicuous curved bracing, doubled on first floor and in gable. Elsewhere on the front elevation, some exposed framing, more mock framing. Frame partly exposed in hall and NE crosswing. Cross-entry at SW end of hall retains 2-centred rear doorhead plain-chamfered externally, front door blocked, twin service doorways with 2-centred heads and jambs ovolo-moulded. Similar parlour doorway into NE crosswing. Floor of this crosswing framed in 3 bays, unchamfered joists jointed to transverse beams with unrefined soffit tenons, beams supported by jowled samson posts in the side walls, independently of the storey-posts. Crenellated and ovolo-moulded beam across full width of hall at first-floor level, supporting aisle posts and fully integrated into frame (once thought to be a later insertion, now recognised as original). SE arcade complete and exposed, with 4 plain-chamfered arched arcade braces, and side braces of similar curvature to tiebeam and principal rafter. Similar structure apparently present in the NW arcade mostly plastered into partition walls. Inserted early C16 ceiling in NE crosswing above first floor, consisting of richly roll-moulded beam and joists with foliate stops. In roof of hall, cambered tiebeam, central crownpost of octagonal section with richly moulded cap and base, the latter of 'water-holding' form, with 4 arched braces of square section. Roof structure complete except where interrupted by inserted chimney stack, all timbers heavily sooted. Original plaster partition at NE end of hall roof, with exposed bracing similar to that on front of crosswing. Both crosswing roof structures largely intact, octagonal crownposts with simpler mouldings but similar braces. Baythorne Hall is an early manor house of exceptionally high quality and exceptionally good state of survival, one of the earliest known examples of the hall house with contemporary jettied crosswings, which later was to become a common form. (See Hewett 1980, pp. 140-1 and 301, and C.A. Hewett: The Introduction of the H-planned House, Period Home, Sept/Oct 1980, pp. 45-7).

Listing NGR: TL7194742659