Housham Hall

TL 504 119 MATCHING 3/43 Housham Hall Hall 20.2.67

GV II

Farmhouse, mid-C16 and C17, altered in C18, C19 and C20. Timber framed, cased with brickwork and rough-cast rendered, roofed with handmade red clay tiles. 2 storey crosswing aligned NE-SW, mid-C16. Internal. chimney stack in middle of SE wall, C17/18. 3 bay block of 2 storeys with attics extending to SE, with external chimney stack at end. Single storeyed extension to NW, C20. SW elevation, glazed door, one casement window, 2 tripartite double-hung sash windows, all c20. 6 panel door, top panels glazed, in flat roofed porch. First floor, one C20 casement window, 2 tripartite double-hung sash windows, early C19, one double-hung sash window, early C19. Main roof hipped at both ends behind parapet. Roof of crosswing rebuilt on NW-SE alignment, half-hipped at NW. Framing partly exposed internally. Jowled posts. Evidence of former unglazed windows with sliding shutters in crosswing. The crosswing and the main block are structurally distinct and of different periods, indicating a phased renewal of the building. The first phase was probably an open hall, aligned NW-SE, with a crosswing at the NW end. The second phase was the insertion of a chimney stack in the NW bay of the hall. This is well illustrated in the Walker map of 1609 (Essex Record Office D/DU 25) which shows the building in elevation. The third phase was the demolition of the hall block and chimney, and its replacement by the present NW-SE block, leaving the crosswing standing to the present day. The fourth phase was the casing in brickwork of the whole building, and the reconstruction of the crosswing roof on a NW-SE alignment, characteristic of the C18. The present chimney stack in the crosswing cannot be the one illustrated by Walker. Alterations were made to the windows in the early c19, of which some survive, and in the C20.

Listing NGR: TL5028911481