Kelvedon Hall

Kelvedon Hall is a country house built around 1743 for John Wright. It was restored in the late 18th century and again in 1937–38 by Lord Gerald Wellesley and Trenwith Wells.

The house is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond with a lead roof. It comprises a central three-storey rectangular block with two two-storey pavilions set forward on each side, linked to the central block by curved walls, creating a U-shaped composition.

The front (north-east facing) central block is seven bays wide, arranged as 2:3:2, with the outer sections articulated slightly forward. A moulded cornice runs at the base of the parapet, with two string courses below, the upper one moulded. All windows have plain reveals and flat heads with gauged brick voussoirs. They are sash windows with thin glazing bars: the ground and first floors have 3×4 pane windows, the second floor 3×2 panes. The central doorcase features attached Tuscan columns, a pediment and a frieze with rosettes in the metopes, and a semicircular fanlight. The door has 3×2 pane glazing with a lower panel.

The pavilions have three windows on their inner faces with exposed flush frames and thick glazing bars. Their outer north-east fronts have two window ranges, but these are false windows with painted glazing bars and panes. Ground floor windows are set in depressed arches with 3×4 panes; first floor windows are oval with painted glazing bars. Both pavilion roofs are hipped and peg-tiled, each topped with a turret and an open arched, ogee-domed cupola. The south-east turret contains a clock; the north-east turret has a weather vane.

The curved walls connecting pavilions to the central block each have a central door and three first floor windows with 3×4 panes, painted except for two real windows on the north side.

The rear south-west garden front has seven bays, arranged 2:3:2, with the central section articulated forward and topped by a simple pediment. A moulded cornice runs below the parapet, with a moulded string course between the first and second floors. A central porch in Adam style rests on plain columns with fluted capitals and a frieze incorporating fluting, paterae and dentils. The glazed door has glazing bars with 3×2 panes, and there is a similar glazed fanlight. Windows match those on the front elevation.

Side wings extend to the north and south. The north wing is single-storey with three false painted windows with 3×4 panes set in depressed arches, and a parapet with slightly recessed ends. The south wing is similar but has real windows. Both wings have stone-moulded cornices and stone coping, with ball finials at each end.

The interior is essentially original. The entrance hall has seven doors leading off, each with dentilled pediments and panelled reveals. The rooms contain good 18th-century features. The dining room shows Adam style treatment, with a transverse beam and two in antis columns dividing the serving end, and a roundel depicting Ulysses and Penelope over the fireplace. Other rooms including the drawing room display Adam style decoration. The stair hall is also in late 18th-century style. The house contains a chapel—the Wrights were a Roman Catholic family—and the study has a ceiling painted with grotesques and putti on cloth, applied to the surface.

The Wright family held the property for ten generations until 1822. Kelvedon Hall, together with the Lodge, stable block, orangery and garden wall, forms a cohesive group.