Shenfield Hall

BRENTWOOD

TQ69NW HALL LANE, Shenfield 723-1/6/312 (West side) 21/10/58 Shenfield Hall

GV II

House. Medieval origin, much altered in C16, extended in C18 and C19. Timber-framed, plastered, roofed with handmade red clay tiles. Complex plan originally comprising 3-bay hall, service bay to left, parlour/solar bay to right, facing S. External stack added to rear of hall, hall/parlour partition rebuilt to left, and service bay converted to a cross-wing, late C16. 2-storey porch to front, late C16. Originally separate single-storey brewhouse/kitchen with wide rear hearth to rear of hall, later connected and raised to 2 storeys. C19 cross-wing to left, extending forwards, with external stack to left, and wider range to rear, with rear stack. C18 and C19 single-storey minor extensions to rear right. 2 storeys. C20 door and flanking windows, one C19 splayed bay to left, C20 windows in left cross-wing. Most other windows are C19 casements. At rear right, on the ground floor, are 2 C18 oeil-de-boeuf windows with moulded plaster architraves and 4 radial keystones. The 2-storey porch is jettied to front and both sides, with plaster coving below the jetties, internal doorway blocked. INTERIOR: internally all the timber structure is plastered below roof level except one transverse and one axial chamfered beam, both with lamb's tongue stops, of the late C16 inserted floor of the hall. A chamfered axial beam in the right bay is faced with plaster. C19 folding 3-part shutter to ground-floor window at rear right. The ground-floor hearth of the stack to rear of the hall has been re-bricked in the C20. Two C19 cast-iron grates on first floor, one with scrolls in high relief. The collar-purlin, rafters and collars of a crownpost roof survive, heavily smoke-blackened above the former hall; only the collar-purlin survives above the former service end, lightly smoke-blackened. Some smoke-blackened medieval tile laths survive in situ above the former open truss of the hall, a rare feature meriting special care. The C18 rebuilt roof above the former service end has in one side a purlin of 0.10 x 0.10m pine a splayed and tabled scarf with undersquinted butts, side key and iron spikes (illustrated in Wood, 1781). (Wood J: A Series of Plans for Cottages or Habitations of the Labourer: 1781-: 15-16; Morant J: The History and Antiquities of the County of Essex: 1768-: 193-4; Essex Historic Buildings Group: Padfield A: January 1985; RCHM: Shenfield : 4).

Listing NGR: TQ6050495264