Stondon Place

This is a large house, rebuilt in 1706, and significantly altered after a fire in 1877, reportedly using salvaged materials from the original structure. The house was constructed for Richard How and is located on Chivers Road in Stondon Massey. It has a red brick facade with a Flemish bond pattern and a peg-tile roof, laid out in an L-shape.

The south front, which faces the garden, features two outer semicircular brick bays and a simpler central section. Plain string courses separate the ground floor from the first floor, topped by a simple parapet. The front is divided into nine bays arranged in a 3:3:3 pattern. All the windows are straight-headed with brick voussoirs and keystones. The front doorway is styled similarly to the windows and features a French door with three panes to each leaf, surmounted by a two-light rectangular fanlight. Two brick stacks are visible, one to the east of the centre and another on the east gable end of the east elevation, which now serves as the principal entrance. A right-angled block extends northwards from the south front. A brick door porch, flat-topped with a parapet and cornice, sits at the junction of the two blocks, with corner buttresses and pilasters “in antis.” The porch features cyma and torus mouldings, a three-light fanlight, and a six-panelled door with the upper four panels recessed and the lower two panels flush. Fixed lights with two-by-four panes flank the porch on both sides. To the south of the porch is a single window, mirroring the design of the front, while to the north are a narrow sash window with glazing bars (one-by-four panes) and two sashes with glazing bars (three-by-four panes). The first floor mirrors the ground floor window arrangement. The gable end of the south front has a stack with a recessed panel, while the north wing has a central stack.

The west elevation, overlooking the rear garden, has an irregular form with two gable ends to the north and central brick roundels. A ground-floor French window with three lights per leaf and a two-light fanlight and a tripartite window (one-by-four, two-by-four, one-by-four panes) are also present. A semicircular oriel window, supported on a brick corbel, projects from the first floor above these openings. This oriel window has three lights with sash windows and glazing bars, each light divided into two-by-four panes.

The interior retains some 18th-century style fireplaces. Stondon Place was the residence of the composer William Byrd between 1593 and his death in 1623. He had previously lived in a house on the same site. Byrd was a recusant and is buried in the nearby Stondon Massey church. Following the conversion of Stondon Hall to a farmhouse, Stondon Place served as the second manor house of Stondon Massey until 1861.