Elsing Hall

Elsing Hall is a Grade I listed mansion of 15th-century origin, substantially refurbished in the 18th century and restored and extended by Thomas Jekyll in 1852. The building is constructed of flint with ashlar dressings, some timber framing to the south elevation, and brick, with plain tile roofs. It follows an irregular plan and rises to two storeys with attics.

The north facade is the most architecturally complex. The central section comprises a porch and a rectangular oriel projecting from the hall body, flanked by gabled sections which are in turn flanked by lower single-storey sections. A service wing extends to the west. The 15th-century two-storey porch features a moulded two-centred entrance arch with blind-traceried spandrels and diagonal buttresses terminating in carved pinnacle figures. Two two-light traceried side windows are possibly original. The oriel has diagonal buttresses and a four-light mullion and transom cusped window. The gabled bays contain eight two-light mullion and transom windows with hood-moulds and carved label stops to both the first and attic floors. Single angle buttresses rise to become octagonal forms, terminating in carved heraldic beasts holding metal spears with fleur-de-lys terminals. A chapel projects to the east, echoed by a similar extension to the west, each with a two-light mullion window with cusped head. A 19th-century four-centred chapel doorway with carved spandrels and a three-light traceried east window (which may partly date to the 15th century) occupy this section. The service wing is set back and features a later brick porch with an ogee-headed entrance, a five-light ground-floor mullion window, and two- and single-light mullion windows elsewhere. Two gabled dormers with diagonally set pinnacles and an attached larder-cum-laundry in brick complete this elevation.

The south facade is almost entirely the work of Thomas Jekyll. Two projecting gabled wings flank the hall with jettied timber-framed upper floors, herringbone brick nogging, and moulded brick corbels flanking the jetties. Each wing displays six ground-floor two-light mullion and transom windows with pairs of four- and two-light windows above, together with elaborate internally stepped barge boards. The hall facade features a canted stair turret on one side (opposite the oriel) with three tall single-light cusped windows. On the other side is a Gothic-style arched doorway with a hood-mould that becomes a stringcourse, accompanied by five rectangular loops with carved label stops. An elaborate gault brick parapet on an arched corbel table crowns this section. The service wing displays two-, three-, and single-light mullion windows, with chimney shafts in elaborately moulded 19th-century brick.

The interior preserves significant medieval and later features. The hall is open to the roof and contains a 15th-century oriel arch with three-shafted responds, facetted capitals, and a moulded two-centred arch. Opposite stands a staircase bay imitating this arch. An original wooden doorframe beneath the stair features a four-centred arch with spandrel carvings. The stair and minstrels' gallery are elaborately carved in a Jacobean and Medieval style. The roof, though reconstructed in the 20th century, retains three surviving 15th-century roll-moulded, arch-braced and cambered tie beams. Several 18th-century rooms retain raised and fielded panelling and carved modillion cornices. A fine 18th-century dog-leg stair with turned balusters, shaped tread ends, and panelled dado is present, along with a coved niche in the library. The rooms introduced by Jekyll feature elaborate Gothic styling with complex leaded glazing, four-centred doorways with carved linenfold doors, and one cast-iron fireplace probably of late 19th-century date in an abstract style.