The Hall

The Hall is a 16th century house located on a moated site in East Mersea. It is a two-storey structure that is timber framed and plastered, designed in a complex H-plan. The north wing features a hipped and gable roof, while the hall range at the west and the south wing date back to around 1500 and have a side-purlin roof. There is a wing that extends to the west of the hall and a range that extends north of the south wing, with a crosswing that includes a central door in a wide (restored) case, topped by a hood supported on brackets. The windows are of mixed types and are irregularly placed, including one pair of sliding sashes on the west wall of the hall's first storey. All roofs are covered with peg tiles. A tall red brick chimney is situated near the return of the south wing, while the north wing has sliding sashes on the south wall of the first storey, above a painted brick ground storey. There are traces of guilloche plaster under the eaves on the north side of the north wing. The east wall at the north end of the hall has a projecting frame, which may suggest that additional bays of the north wing have been removed. The kitchen range is a single storey with a hipped peg-tiled roof and a tall red brick chimney dating from around 1900. There are possible remains of a stair-tower in the return to the south-east of the hall.