Spains Hall

Spains Hall is a Grade I listed great house of approximately 1570, incorporating a fragment of an earlier house dating to around 1400–50, with significant additions from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. It stands on the east side of Spains Hall Road in Finchingfield.

The building is constructed of red brick, predominantly in English bond with some Flemish bond work, combined with areas of plastered timber framing, and roofed with handmade red clay tiles. It rises two storeys with attics and follows a complex L-shaped plan with wings extending to the south-east and north-east, presenting its main elevation to the south-west.

The south-west elevation displays English bond brickwork with a moulded plinth and storeys divided by moulded brick string courses, which originally featured recessed plaster bands now missing. The elevation is dominated by seven original gables — two large and five small — all with curvilinear copings. The windows feature hollow-moulded mullions, square heads and labels, with six examples retaining their original form. The porch rises to full height with one of the smaller gables. Its outer entrance has moulded jambs and a 4-centred arch beneath a square head and label, while the inner doorway has been brought forward and retains an original 4-centred door with mouldings. On each side of the porch stand original 2-light windows with square heads, now blocked. Five lead rainwater heads bearing the initials of Robert and Elizabeth Kempe and dated 1637 are ornamented with strapwork, leopards and cherubs. Twenty-two octagonal chimney shafts with moulded bases, variously restored, punctuate the elevation.

The north-west elevation is partly of plastered timber framing with a moulded plinth and two projecting gables fitted with two carved brackets. The bressumers and bargeboards are moulded and richly carved with guilloche and conventional ornament, with carved and moulded pendants at the gable apices, dating to the early 17th century. Three ground-floor windows are original and similar to those of the south-west elevation but remain plastered. Beneath one gable stands an original 8-light oriel window with one wrought-iron casement, early glass and diamond leading. A Venetian window of 18th-century date appears elsewhere.

The south-east elevation of the north-east wing is in Flemish bond. The ground floor contains three 18th-century sashes of 12 lights with flat arches of gauged brick and two tripartite French windows with segmental arches of gauged brick. The first floor displays four 18th-century 9-light sashes and one early 19th-century window, all retaining crown glass. A wooden plain parapet and a circular domed cupola with six Tuscan columns support a weathervane of pierced design inscribed 'TR 1768'.

The block north-east of the library retains one bay of a king post roof dating to around 1400–50, featuring arch-braced side purlins and cambered collars with moulded posts and braces. Medieval king post roofs are rare in Essex, with only two other domestic examples known; this roof appears to be part of the crosswing of a former house on the site and remains unsooted.

The hall interior contains moulded wallplates and moulded and carved beams, two of which bear a carved shield of arms and crest, painted. Doorways to the porch and south staircase have double-chamfered jambs and 4-centred heads with original richly moulded doors and iron handles.

The drawing room features moulded ceiling beams and a fireplace with a richly panelled overmantel of circa 1640, flanked by Ionic pilasters; contemporary wall panelling also remains.

The early 17th-century south staircase exhibits turned balusters, moulded handrails and square newels with turned finials and acorn tops.

The library contains double-ogee moulded beams with foliated cyma stops and oak panelling. At its north corner stands a blocked doorway with a 4-centred head. The corridor running north-east from the library retains an original brick floor laid in herringbone pattern.

The kitchen contains re-used 17th-century oak panelling, and the scullery features a large bread oven with wrought-iron door.

On the first floor, above the corridor, an early 17th-century fireplace displays a brick depressed arch with chamfered jambs, a richly carved arcaded overmantel, and an 18th-century 3-movement wrought-iron crane with cast-iron grate. The associated panelling dates to the early 17th century.

Several early 17th-century moulded doors, some with drop-handles, and two late 16th-century moulded 8-panel doors survive throughout. The roofs employ butt-purlin construction.