Maldon Hall Mallards

Maldon Hall and Mallards

Large house and small dwelling in former service accommodation, dating from around 1500, the 18th century, and early 19th century. The structure is partly timber-framed and partly constructed in red Flemish-bond brick and painted brick, with roofs of plain tiles and Welsh slate, and Gault brick chimney stacks. The building occupies a moated site and represents a very complex structure of multiple building phases.

The exterior comprises two storeys with a small cellar. On the south-east corner stands a rectangular painted-brick block with a slate hipped roof featuring lead hips and ridge detail. This block has an off-centre Gault brick ridgeline stack and is fronted on its south face by a cast-iron verandah with a glass roof and ornamental posts, which continues across the adjoining block. The east elevation of this structure displays three 16-pane sash windows on the first floor, all with painted flat-arched heads, while the ground floor has three similar but deeper windows. The south elevation contains two blind window recesses on the first floor and a door at ground level.

Adjoining to the west is the short end face of a long north-south range, representing the earlier core of the house. Its south face displays a hipped slate roof behind a plain parapet, with a flat dormer containing an 8-pane sash window. The first floor has a wide blind recess in the centre and a 12-pane sash window. The ground floor contains a 16-pane sash with sill positioned near floor level, set behind a continuation of the verandah with a coloured tile floor.

The western elevation of this range is clad in red Flemish-bond brick with a slight break occurring one-third distance from the south-west corner. The long roof is hipped at both ends and clad in plain tiles, with a large Gault brick stack positioned off-centre on its ridge. The first floor features one small-paned tripartite sash window, two 12-pane sashes, an 8-pane sash, a large 16-pane sash, and a small window with cross-glazing pattern, most with rubbed brick arched heads. Mid-wall stands a tall staircase window with 8 panes and a curious double-curved rubbed brick arch. The ground floor includes a sash with central vertical glazing bar, a small-paned French window with side lights, a small plain sash, a 9-pane sash, and an arched cellar opening.

Linked to the northern end of this range is a small rectangular red brick building with a hipped plain tile roof, forming part of Mallards. This former outbuilding features a wide lean-to dormer with two 20th-century windows on the west side and a single lean-to dormer on the east with slate roofs. The south flank wall has a tall stack, and a 20th-century conservatory is set against the west wall.

The rear (east) of this building connects to a former cross-wing at the end of the main core block. The west elevation of this cross-wing displays a truncated slate roof, rendered walls, and a small-paned tripartite sash on the first floor. The ground floor is fronted by a stone-flagged yard, partly contained by a wall, with a kitchen door featuring a hood on consoles and a 19th-century cast-iron wall-mounted pump. A slate-roofed gabled extension and a further single-storey red brick extension with a plain tile gabled roof extend to the north.

The interior reveals that the long north-south range is an in-line two-storey timber-framed house of the late 15th or early 16th century. Remnants of a crown-post roof survive, featuring three simple crown posts with lateral braces, positioned under a later side-purlin roof. One truss formerly covered the upper chamber. The posts are jowled with flat chamfered bridging joists and spine beams. One partition is partly exposed, showing a flat chamfered doorway. At the north end, a very large jowled post—probably part of the earlier cross-wing—is exposed. This area includes, in part, a 17th-century floor with a substantial bridging joist and a mantel-beamed fireplace of remarkable width, now partially infilled.

An adjoining kitchen in the early 19th-century western range features a wide contemporary fireplace with a large keystone and wall shelving. The interior is generally very complete with numerous early 19th-century features including doors, architraves, and cornices. The south-west room contains simple panelling, and reeded arches appear on both ground-floor and first-floor hallways. The windows to the south elevation have internal folding shutters.