Walls Both Bordering The Road And Within The Site At Samsons Motorworks

Walls at Samsons Motorworks

These are the surviving walls from a historic manor site, dating to around 1500. They were built for William Barons, Bishop of London, and are constructed of red brick in English bond with some burnt brick diapering. The walls rise to approximately 8 feet in height.

The roadside wall extends roughly 60 feet along the road frontage. Parts of it feature diamond pattern diapering, and most has a high brick plinth. The upper courses have been reworked in places, and the section nearest the site entrance has undergone careful rebuilding, possibly only to its outer face. This section now forms the lower part of a late 20th-century workshop.

The walls extending into the site were originally part of a long barn. Two sections survive as side walls of the modern workshop—the outer wall extends about 16 feet and the inner wall about 14 feet to where a late 20th-century inspection pit begins. These walls are mostly whitewashed on their inner surfaces and rendered on the outer face, with evidence of recent blocking of small window openings. A further stretch of wall extends approximately 50 feet into the site, forming the back wall of the next building. This fine-quality wall, again about 8 feet high, is of red brick with a brick plinth and diamond pattern diapering. At its centre stands a blocked Tudor-arched doorway, with the brick arch entirely surviving; weatherboarding of a 20th-century continuation building begins above.

From the end of this wall, approximately another 50 feet north-west, stand the back and end walls of another workshop forming part of the north-western boundary. These walls are around 50 feet long and 8 feet high, with a base dating to around 1500, though the upper part is later. They appear to survive from a former house.

Historical Context

This site was one of the historic manors of Hadleigh, owned by the Hadleighs of Hadleigh in the 14th and 15th centuries and known as Hadleigh Place, the Place, and later Place Farm. By around 1500 it had become the property of William Barons, Bishop of London. His will, dated 1505, refers to "brikestones for building his manor in Hadleigh", confirming major building work at that date.

The 1839 Hadleigh tithe map identifies the surviving walls: the northern walls are from a long barn, the western walls are probably from a large house that was being demolished in 1847–8 according to Reverend Hugh Pigot. The boundary wall to Lady Lane includes part of the walling from a former gatehouse, which was demolished in the 1930s. An early photograph in the Hadleigh Archive documents the boundary wall, gatehouse, and rear barn. The site is known locally as "The Monastery".

These walls represent significant historic structures, and the site itself holds considerable historical importance with the likelihood of substantial archaeological remains.