Elmstead Hall

Elmstead Hall is a house that dates back to the 15th and 16th centuries, with earlier origins and later alterations and additions. It features a timber frame with plastering and has red plain tiled roofs with projecting eaves cornices. The building has two repaired 16th-century red brick diagonal chimney stacks, one located forward off the centre right and the other plastered at the left end. The original bargeboards are present on the end and rear gables.

The house is two storeys high with attics and has a central hall flanked by crosswings on both sides, along with rear wings that include a stair turret. The window arrangement consists of a 2:4:2 pattern of small paned vertically sliding sashes. The central entrance features a six-panelled door with a moulded surround, a flat canopy supported by brackets, and bargeboards and a band on the gables.

Inside, there are notable features such as a large, high-quality 16th-century frame that incorporates an earlier, possibly 15th-century, jettied east crosswing. The interior includes jowled storey posts, halved and bridled scarf joints, and very deep floor joists. The roof is well-constructed with wind-braced side purlins, double wall plates, and interrupted tie beams to provide headroom in the attic. A solid tread staircase leads to the attics, which also feature 17th and 18th-century panelling. The room above the hall is adorned with fluted pilasters and a moulded cornice.

Original doorways have four-centred heads, sunk spandrels, and carved stops. There are two blocked windows with moulded mullions and transoms, along with several 16th and 17th-century doors. A corner cupboard from the 18th century has strapwork pilasters and a shell hood on the ground floor. In the attic, though not in their original positions, are several 17th and 18th-century iron windows with swan neck catches, as well as a 19th-century cast iron fire surround with tiled sides.

The current occupant possesses photographs of original wall paintings featuring grotesques, which were discovered by Mrs. Mitchell in 1928 and are believed to still exist behind a wall panel. There is also a copy of part of the design and an article by G. Montague-Benton, published in the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, which dates the paintings to around 1560.