Roydon Hall Farmhouse

Roydon Hall Farmhouse

A late 16th-century timber-framed and plastered house with original end walls of red brick in English bond, and later additions in gault brick, roofed with handmade red clay tiles and slate. The building sits on the north side of Harwich Road and comprises a main range of seven bays facing south with a two-bay crosswing at the right end.

The main range was extended forward, probably in the 18th century, and is now two storeys with a cellar below the right wing. The ground floor has five early 19th-century sash windows of 6 + 6 lights, and the first floor has five early 19th-century sashes of six lights and one of four lights. A 20th-century door sits within a gabled porch at the front.

The main range features a full-length jetty that is plastered and ashlared above and below. The left return of the main range is of red brick and is distinguished by octagonal corner turrets, each finished with an octagonal pinnacle of elaborately moulded brick. A similar pinnacle sits on the apex of the gable; all these pinnacles are now truncated. On each floor of the left return is a large blocked window with chamfered jambs and straight head, with a moulded pediment retaining original plaster details. In the gable is a blocked round window with ovolo moulding.

The right wing has a recessed plaster roundel in its otherwise blank gable end. Its right return has two octagonal turrets (repaired and truncated below eaves level) and a brick wall originally blank, now with 20th-century inserted windows and pediments copied from the left return, and a brick buttress in the middle. The left return of the right wing has a short continuous jetty and one early 19th-century sash of eight lights.

All chimney shafts are now square and of gault brick; the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England recorded original octagonal shafts on the northwest stack, since replaced. Within the porch is an early 19th-century archway with semi-elliptical head.

The front windows are of unusual interest, comprising irregularly arranged rectangular panes of early 19th-century sheet glass—610 x 286 mm on the ground floor and 730 x 311 mm on the first floor—rare survivals of this material. In the main range, the transverse and axial beams are double-ogee moulded (some boxed in), with one 20th-century replica. The joists are plain and of horizontal section, originally plastered to the soffits, some now exposed. In the original part of the right crosswing, the transverse and axial beams are plain-chamfered with lamb's tongue stops, and the joists are plain and of horizontal section. On the first floor of the main range, all straight tiebeams, bridging joists and wallplates are double-ogee moulded, with joists plastered to the soffits. In the original bays of the crosswing the posts are jowled.

The original large hearths have been reduced or blocked. The forward extension of the right crosswing contains much reused timber of similar quality and ornament, with reused ovolo-moulded joists in the cellar from a demolished part of the original building. This reconstruction is of doubtful date, but features a good king-post roof of a type much used in the 18th century; the short jetty is not constructed in the normal way, indicating it is a later copy of the jettied main range. The rear extension of the main range has an early 19th-century stair with turned square balusters.

The roof of the main range was rebuilt in the early 19th century with much reused oak in the front pitch, a ridge-piece, and a rear pitch of shallow angle (to cover the rear extension) of softwood. Part of the northwest turret within the roof retains original lime plaster. A moulded brick found on site, in the possession of the owners, comes from an ovolo-moulded mullion.

An early 19th-century extension of gault brick partly encloses three external stacks to the rear of the main range. A later 19th-century single-storey lean-to extension with slate roof sits to the rear of the right end, and a 20th-century two-storey flat-roofed extension stands to the left of it.

Stylistically the house has been dated to around 1560, but this is historically improbable and perhaps too early for the ovolo mouldings and lamb's tongue stops. From 1544 to 1563 the manor of Roydon was held by Mary Roydon, a minor, who married John Lucas of Colchester. It is likely that he built the house around 1570. In 1567 the manor comprised 600 acres of arable land, 100 of meadow, 600 of pasture, 500 of woodland, 100 of marsh, and 200 of furze and heath, with rents in Ramsey, Wrabness and Witham, making it a major estate that was further increased by the time of Lucas's death in 1599. The house may have been substantially larger originally than the part which survives, particularly to include service accommodation equivalent to the existing reception areas.