Sheering Hall

Sheering Hall is a pair of timber-framed hall houses of exceptional architectural and historical significance, dating from the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The buildings are roughcast rendered and roofed with handmade red clay tiles. They were originally separate structures but have been combined into one house and extended during the 19th and 20th centuries, now forming an approximately Z-plan arrangement.

The first house (dated to the late 15th century) is a Wealden house aligned approximately northwest to southeast, with a storeyed end to the southeast jettied on both sides—a feature of particular rarity in Essex at this date, as single-sided jetties are more common in the county. The house comprises a 2-bay hall ending in a hip, with no original storeyed accommodation to the northwest. The second house (dated to the early 16th century) abuts the northwest end and is aligned approximately northeast to southwest. It features a 2-bay hall with an integral storeyed southwest end and a storeyed crosswing to the northeast. A cellar lies beneath the northeast bay of the hall. A late 16th-century inserted axial chimney stack occupies the southwest bay of the hall, and a stair tower is positioned in the east angle. An external chimney stack stands at the northeast side of the crosswing. A 19th-century extension projects to the northwest of the second house, and an extension dating to around 1900 extends to the southeast of the first house, with an axial chimney stack at the junction. Miscellaneous small extensions from the 19th and 20th centuries are scattered on all sides.

The buildings are 2 storeys throughout. The southwest elevation features a ground floor with 3 bay windows of approximately 1900 date and double-glazed doors set within a tiled gabled porch. The first floor has 4 twentieth-century casement windows with facade gables above. A jetty is visible in the middle section, and the roof is hipped at the southeast end only.

Internally, the first house shows considerable timber-frame exposure, principally on the ground floor. The transverse joists over the northeast jetty are of horizontal section and unchamfered, spanning over the angle staircase. The roof is a crownpost roof retaining an original hip rafter at the northwest end, now smoke-blackened, though enclosed within a later extension. The crownpost is plain with arch braces. The roof structure is largely complete, including the original wattle and daub partition between the hall and storeyed southwest end. The ground floor hearth at the junction of the two houses features a stone surround with bolection moulding. A ground floor room at the southeast end contains a fire surround of grey marble with an elaborately carved wooden surround featuring egg-and-dart decoration at the sides and an acorn and oak leaf design above, with a floral band at ceiling level; these elements date to approximately 1900.

In the second house, the axial beam of the inserted floor within the hall is plain chamfered with lamb's tongue stops. The cambered central tiebeam of the hall originally featured deep arched braces, of which one is severed to accommodate a closet door and the other has been removed entirely. The crownpost is of octagonal section with step stops and 4 thin-section arched braces. The roof is largely complete and smoke-blackened over the hall. An 18th-century window in the southeast end of the crosswing at first floor level survives in exceptional condition, comprising one fixed light with 2 vertical iron bars, one wrought iron casement with rectangular panes including some early glass and original leading, all set in a hardwood frame—a rare survival.

This pair of houses is of exceptional interest for several reasons. The first house is the only Wealden house known in Essex from this date that is jettied on both sides, a feature found in the Weald itself but not normally replicated in Essex. The roof structure, indicating original hips at both ends, is unusually complete, though the lower part of the house has been substantially altered. The 'Unit System' grouping at manorial level is rare; a parallel exists at Leaden Roding Hall, though with significant differences. The 'Unit System' permitted two generations of the same family to occupy separate yet adjacent households while working shared land. Where identified elsewhere, the smaller house is typically the later structure, but here the reverse appears to be the case. The first house, with only one storeyed end, is unlikely to have originally served as a manor house, suggesting that an earlier manor house occupied the site of the second house and was replaced as part of a phased renewal programme in which the Wealden house was constructed before the main manor house itself was rebuilt.