Rochford Hall And Ruins

Rochford Hall and Ruins

The remains of a very large house, now a golf club house, built circa 1540–50 with possibly 12th or 13th century origins. Later alterations, additions and demolitions have significantly reduced the structure. The building is constructed of red brick, ragstone and ragstone rubble, and mixed rubble. The south-east face is plastered. In places, the external walls are 2 feet 6 inches thick. The roofs are red plain tile.

Once one of the largest houses in the county, the hall originally contained at least three, possibly four, courtyards. The entire south part has been destroyed. The surviving buildings of the north-western courtyard are reduced in height and used as barns. The remaining two full-height ranges are on the north-eastern side: two storeys with attic, arranged in an L-plan with wings joined by an octagonal turret at the north-east corner.

On the east face, two chimney stacks rise at the end of the gables, left and right, forward of the ridge between the two northern gables. A parapet verge runs to the right. Four gables have continuous coping, each with a truncated finial and a small-paned vertically sliding sash window. Five first-floor small-paned vertically sliding sash windows remain, three of which are tripartite, with a similar range to the ground floor. A six-panelled door with a moulded surround and semi-circular fanlight with ornate tracery stands to the right of the first window. To the left (south) is a parapeted two-storey, two-window range of tripartite small-paned vertically sliding sashes, with a four-panel two-light door to the right. The taller crenellated octagonal turret to the right (north) is mainly of red brick with rubble and ragstone, showing traces of former plaster. It has a moulded plinth and a band below the crenellations. Ground and first floor original window openings retain moulded labels; a similar smaller window appears on the second floor to the eastern faces, with traces of similar blocked windows to the western faces.

The north-western face is mainly of red brick with rubble and ragstone, showing traces of plaster. Four gables each have a single octagonal chimney shaft supported below and rising from the apex. Coping crowns the gables. Traces of attic windows appear to each side of each chimney stack. Six blocked first-floor windows now have smaller three-light casements. The ground floor has been much altered and repaired, but blocked openings are visible, now filled with five various windows and two doors. Almost centrally placed is an external red brick chimney stack rising to first-floor cill level.

To the west of the return gable, the remains are mainly two storeys high with later roofs of red plain tiles or pantiles, hipped to the north-west angle and gabled to the southern ranges. At the north-western angle are the remains of an octagonal turret similar to that at the north-eastern angle, also with blocked doorways and windows. Part of the south-western and off-centre west ranges remain with courtyards between. The western face shows remains of two blocked windows, one with traces of three lights. Another blocked window appears in the eastern wall of this range. The remains of a stair turret occupy the north-western angle of the courtyard, with an original doorway. A later gable has been erected to the east of this stair turret. To its east is a doorway with a four-centred head. Other windows and doorways appear on the west and east faces of the central range and two to the south. A former central projection, now with only two walls, has a moulded doorway on the south wall and an opening to the north.

The north-eastern courtyard has a stair turret in its north-eastern angle. Two former projections are visible in trace, one with a blocked fireplace. Several original windows, doorways and recesses remain. Other doorways and windows are probably hidden by plaster and rubble infills.

When the building was inspected in October 1974 by A.C. Edwards, C.A. Hewett, M.C. Wadhams and Dr. D.J.E.L. Carrick, their assessment noted that although apparently a 16th or 17th-century building, there is re-used older material, and in the north-west area, a building of great age. The west tower could possibly have been built in the 12th or 13th century, lowered later, and then built up again using old material. The bricks are of remarkable uniformity, the great majority measuring 9 1/4 x 2 1/2 x 4 inches, dark red and hard, well-moulded with very straight edges, laid in English bond. Dr. Carrick suggested a date of 1590–1620 for the bricks; if earlier, they are presumably the result of brickmakers imported from the Continent. Regarding the attics with chimneys and matching roofs, a date of late 17th century is suggested. The assessment concluded that there was a building of 12th–13th century date, then ruined and restored in the early 16th century using old materials. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the present house was added and many parts of the original stone building rebuilt in brick. The roof was possibly raised in the 17th century.

A memo by C.A. Hewett confirmed that the structural carpentry is original to the building, with precedent in the Queen's House, Tower of London, dated circa 1598. No evidence of disturbance or renewal of the timber work, which comprises the first floor and roof of the parts standing to full height, was found. Hewett stated that the standard of accuracy and excellence of finish justifies Grade I listing and that the technological innovation, if proved earlier than St. Paul's Deanery (1666), is of national importance.

Historically, the hall was once owned by Thomas Butler, seventh Earl of Ormonde (died 1515), and by Sir Thomas Bullen (died 1538), father of Ann Boleyn. Later it passed to Lord Rich (died 1567), Chancellor of England. During the period 1540–1550, when the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments dates the building, it was assigned to Mary, Lady Stafford, Bullen's elder daughter, and her son by her first marriage, Lord Hunsdon.

According to Rochford's historian Benton, two fires occurred: one in the time of James Butler, who was beheaded in 1461, and a second in 1760 when the hall remained in a ruinous condition for some time. Following the 1760 fire, the windows were modernised and the red brickwork was encased in plaster.