Ongar Park Hall and Boundary Walls

Ongar Park Hall and boundary walls

A complex house of 15th, 17th and late 19th century date, constructed in timber frame with red brick additions and alterations. Parts are rendered or weatherboarded. The roofs are clay plain tiles. The building has a complex plan form, all of two storeys but with a wide variety of eaves lines.

The earliest surviving part comprises a two-storey block oriented north-south, with a gabled plain tile roof. This section is rendered to the west and has white weatherboarding on the east side. A tall central cruciform stack breaks through the roof west of the ridge. The west elevation contains a recessed three-light casement on the first floor with six horizontal panes, while the ground floor has a simple boarded door and small window. The north elevation displays a mixture of 19th and 20th century casements.

To the north of this block stands a small black-weatherboarded outbuilding with a half-hipped plain tile roof. Attached to its north-east corner is a single-storey gault brick outhouse with a clay pantiled mono-pitch roof, a short stack, iron fittings, a small-paned two-light casement and boarded door.

To the south of the earliest block is a taller late 19th century structure with a plain tile roof, gabled to the south and hipping down to the north. This is substantially of red Flemish bond brickwork, though its north-east corner is of white painted weatherboarding. The south elevation has a tripartite double hung sash and a single double hung sash on each floor, all with single vertical glazing bars and slightly arched heads. A substantial red brick stack sits on the ridge line. The east elevation contains a casement with top lights on the first floor and a double hung sash with a single central vertical glazing bar on the ground floor.

To the west of this late 19th century block is a lower two-storey block with a continuous cat-slide roof to the north. The west elevation is rendered brick with a parapet, three windows and a gable end stack. The rendered south elevation has tripartite double hung sash windows on each floor and a single double hung sash over the entrance door with a heavy stucco hood on foliate consoles. The single-storey rear north elevation of this range has an external wall stack, a single double hung sash with small panes in the upper half, two small windows and a plain door.

Inside, remnants survive of a formerly three-bay timber frame of probable 15th century date. This has steep arch wall braces and comprises a two-bay chamber, probably originally open to the roof, with single-bay chambers at the south end. The original roof form involved hips with gablets at each end, with remnants surviving including posts and a collar purlin of a former crown post roof. A large 16th century stack substantially fills the northern bay, which contains traces of roof blackening within. To the north of this is an extension bay of the 16th century with internal arch wall braces and open-framed tie beams against the earlier work. The western wing has an integral attic and is of good quality 17th century framing.

The property includes substantial brick garden walls to the east and west. Ongar Park Hall is a surviving remnant of Ongar Park Manor. The earliest work may be part of the former manor house or, more likely, a substantial detached kitchen that once belonged to the manorial complex.