Tilbury Hall

This timber-framed house, dating from the 14th and 16th centuries with alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries, is plastered and roofed with handmade red clay tiles. It stands as a complex accumulation of structures built around the remains of a much earlier building.

The earliest element is a service crosswing aligned northeast to southwest, originally comprising four bays but reduced to three. This crosswing is all that remains of a 14th-century aisled hall that was formerly sited to the southeast. A two-storey hall block was built in the late 15th or early 16th century on the site of the old hall, with a contemporary stair tower in the east angle, which has a catslide roof. A late 16th-century extension extends to the northeast of the crosswing, jettied at its end, and incorporates a later chimney stack that passes through the jetty.

To the northwest of the crosswing is a two-bay extension dated to the late 16th century, with an internal chimney stack at the junction and an external chimney stack at its end, followed by a single-storey 19th-century extension. An additional extension of 18th or 19th-century date occupies the north angle. These additions form a T-plan, with the long elevation to the southwest now serving as the entrance front, though this was originally the rear elevation. The most important architectural features face northeast towards the parish church.

The building rises to two storeys with attics. The southwest elevation shows a 20th-century door and four tripartite double-hung sash windows of 4-12-4 lights (two early 19th century and two 20th-century reproductions), together with two early 19th-century double-hung sash windows of 12 lights. The first floor has three early 19th-century tripartite windows. In the attic gable is one 20th-century double-hung sash window of 12 lights. The southeast gable contains a first-floor doorway with a four-centred arched head that has been reduced to form a window.

The internal chimney stack features two diagonal and one square shaft with broached and dentilled base. The northwest stack has two diagonal shafts, though these have been rebuilt. Two plain brackets are exposed below the northeast jetty.

The 14th-century crosswing retains exceptional internal features. It displays exposed joists with central tenon jointing and a blocked stair trap. Multiple display braces are visible on the southeast side, darkened by smoke. The posts are jowled, and the roof is a crownpost form, though incomplete. The first floor contains two elaborately moulded doorways of early 16th-century date and a third incomplete example. Of the original 14th-century aisled hall, only one arcade post and a short length of tiebeam remain visible.

The hall block to the southeast features double-ogee mouldings on posts and binding beams. It has exposed plain joists of horizontal section and evidence of a former dais at the southeast end. The first floor contains a blocked doorway with hollow moulding and carvings of lions' heads in the spandrels of its arched head. The wallplates show edge-halved and bridled scarfs with double-ogee mouldings (one section replaced). The central tiebeam is missing and the roof has been altered. An inserted window in the northeast wall has two ovolo mullions.

The northeast extension contains a cellar with the ground floor missing and a frieze window fully ovolo-moulded across its entire width, now partly blocked by a later chimney stack. Evidence of a similar frieze window exists on the first floor but is concealed by panelling of around 1600 that lines the end room. The roof employs clasped purlin construction.

The northwest extension has chamfered beams and exposed plain joists of horizontal section in one room. The northeast wall retains one original window on the ground floor and two on the first floor with ovolo-moulded jambs, mullions, and transoms, now fitted with modern casements. The roof is of clasped purlin construction.

This house retains an exceptional number of internal features of high quality and historical interest.