Seckford Hall

Seckford Hall is a hotel, formerly a country house, built around 1553 for Thomas Seckford, with 19th- and 20th-century additions and alterations. The building is constructed of red English bond brick with a plain tile roof. It has two storeys with a basement and attic.

Entrance Front

The entrance front has seven bays arranged near-symmetrically. At the centre is a porch bay flanked by polygonal buttresses. These buttresses rise from a projecting plinth (common to the whole front) and terminate in mace finials of moulded brick. The ground floor has a central plank door with original iron door furniture, set in a cavetto and ovolo-moulded brick surround. Beyond this is a moulded rectangular surround with a pediment of moulded bricks above. A string course runs at the level of the first-floor window sills. The first-floor window above the door is of three lights with ovolo-moulded surround, mullions, and a transom. A further string course sits above this with a pediment. The porch is topped by a battlemented parapet with saddle-back coping.

To the right of the central bay are two bays. Each has a three-light basement window with chamfered surrounds (the left one has lost one mullion), ovolo-moulded surrounds, and hood moulds with label stops. The ground floor has similar four-light windows. On the first floor, the left bay has a three-light window with mullions and transom, while the right bay has two cross-windows divided by a king mullion with a continuous hood mould. Above are two stepped gables with saddle-back copings and a two-light window in each gable. Between these bays is a lead rainwater head showing the Seckford and Mackford coats of arms in relief, with a 20th-century lead downpipe. To the right is a similar rainwater head and pipe.

To the left of the central bay are two bays. The left bay was originally the staircase light, two storeys high, formed of four cross-windows divided by a king mullion and king transom. To the right of this at ground floor level is a four-light window with ovolo-moulded surround and hood mould. Above this is a three-light window with ovolo-moulded mullions and transom. These bays are topped by crow-stepped gables with two two-light windows and saddle-back coping, as on the right.

The lateral bays project slightly and have octagonal buttresses at their corners, which diminish via an offset between the ground and first floors. These bays have four-light ground floor windows with pediments, three-light similar windows on the first floor, and two-light similar windows in the attic, all with ovolo-moulded surrounds. Above are crow-stepped gables with flat tops and mace finials of moulded brick above the polygonal buttresses.

On the ridge, to the right and left of centre, are cross-axial chimney stacks with square bases supporting octagonal chimney shafts with moulded caps and bases. To the right, before ridge level, is an 18th- or 19th-century rectangular stack. On the roof of the right-hand gable wing is a cross-axial stack with a rectangular body supporting four octagonal flues with moulded bases, but their caps have been lost.

Right-Hand Side

At the far left of the right-hand side is an imposed doorway with a flat arched head. Above this is a three-light first-floor window with a chamfered surround. To the right is a slightly projecting gabled bay with octagonal buttresses at the corners, topped by mace finials of moulded brick as seen on the entrance front. At ground floor level is a substantial projecting 20th-century wing, the flat roof of which forms a balcony for the first-floor windows. These include a doorway at the right and a cross-window at the left, both 20th-century but set in older window surrounds. The gable is crow-stepped with saddle-back coping and holds a two-light 20th-century window set in an older hollow-chamfered surround.

In the re-entrant angle to the right of this is a turret with one first-floor casement. The turret has rendered walling to its lower body and a brick kneeler and crow-stepped gable with saddle-back coping. To the right of this at ground floor level are three recessed bays. These have a two-light window at the left, fitted with 20th-century mahogany windows, set in an earlier surround with hood mould above. To the right is a 20th-century cross-window with a flat head. A continuous hood mould joins this to the central window, which is of three lights with a 20th-century chamfered ashlar surround set within an earlier hollow-chamfered surround and brick mullions. To the left of this is a three-light 20th-century window with a lowered sill, which appears to be set within an earlier opening. In the attic are flat-roofed dormer windows: four lights at the right and three lights at the left.

To the right again is a further projecting turret with a first-floor window, kneeler, and crow-stepped gable like the one to the left. This turret has a polygonal buttress at the right-hand corner with a mace finial of rubbed brick. Extending at the right is a 20th-century addition in Tudor style with randomly distributed fenestration, above which is a further dormer window of eight lights.

Left-Hand Face

The left-hand face is almost entirely of 20th-century date with 20th-century fenestration. There is a doorway at the right and to the left a cross-window. On the first floor are two two-light windows. Projecting at the left of this is a bay with polygonal buttresses at the corners, having two cross-windows on the ground and first floors and a stepped gable above. The buttresses terminate in ball finials. To the left again is a slightly recessed portion with, at the right, a projecting ground floor bay with a cross-window and brick parapet above with saddle-back coping. To the left of this is one four-light window. On the first floor, at the right, is a door and cross-window, and at the left one three-light window.

Rear

The rear has a recessed central range with projecting wings on either side. The recessed centre is of five bays and has at its centre a doorway with a round-headed arch and moulded brick surround with ashlar springers. This has ashlar pilasters on either side with cabled flutings, standing on panelled plinths which are weathered. The entablature above has metopes with shields and triglyphs with guttae. The first-floor window is of three lights with moulded mullions and transom and ovolo-moulded surround. To either side of this are fluted pilasters with moulded bases resting on moulded plinths with diamond panels, but without capitals (the brickwork above this level having been disturbed). Below the first-floor window is a rectangular ashlar panel showing a coat of arms with foliage and tassels.

The walling to the right of centre appears to have been largely rebuilt, having larger bricks of a different colour, perhaps of 19th- or 20th-century date. To the left at ground floor level is a hall window formed of four windows of three by four lights, the lower two lights divided from the upper two by a king transom, all with an ovolo-moulded surround. At the right of this is a stretch of walling bearing a 20th-century lead downpipe with a 16th-century rainwater head with coat of arms. To the right of that is a further hall window, similar to the staircase window on the entrance front, consisting of four cross-windows divided by a king mullion and king transom. To the left of the central doorway is one four-light ground floor window with ovolo-moulded surround. On the first floor above this are two cross-windows set in a recessed portion of walling, all with ovolo-moulded surrounds and with a cambered relieving arch above. At the far left is a 20th-century glazed door with overlight and a two-light first-floor window.

The projecting wing at the right has, on its inner flank, a three-light window with ovolo-moulded surround, above which is a pediment of moulded brick. Dividing the ground from the first floor is a string course of moulded brick, on which rests the first-floor window, which is of three lights with an ovolo-moulded surround. To the right of this is a 20th-century portion in Tudor style with a doorway set in a recessed portion of walling with a panelled door, and a projecting gabled wing at the right with a three-light ground floor window with pediment, and a two-light window on the first floor. The two floors are divided by a string course.

The left-hand wing has a three-bay symmetrical arrangement on its inner-facing flank at the right, with a doorway at the centre. This doorway has a round arch, ashlar springers, and fluted and coupled pilasters on either side resting on panelled plinths. Above this is a pediment with a brick frieze to which triglyphs, guttae, and shields have been applied. Above this is a pediment of moulded brick with ball finials at either side and at the apex. To either side of this are three-light windows with ovolo-moulded surrounds, mullions, and a transom, with pediments above. On the first floor, which is divided from the ground floor by a string course, are three windows of three lights with ovolo-moulded surrounds. These three bays now carry two hipped roofs, but a drawing by Davy in the British Museum Print Room shows each bay with a stepped gable. To the left of these bays is a portion of 20th-century walling with a three-light ground floor window with ovolo-moulded surround and pediment above, divided from the first floor by a string course, and a three-light similar window on the first floor.

Interior

The building has been greatly restored this century, and the plan and features of the interior have been greatly altered in the process. Close-studded walling survives in one first-floor bedroom with tension braces and chamfered ceiling beams, and further close-studding survives in the walls of the present bar area. A staircase of two flights with a quarter turn, turned balusters, heavy moulded handrail, and square newels with ball finials, apparently of early 18th-century date, has been removed from its former position. The hall has been divided by an inserted floor, and the early Renaissance screen which had Roman Doric columns with cabling has been removed and replaced by a Perpendicular ecclesiastical screen of early 16th-century date.

Considerable quantities of planted materials have been used (the present guidebook records that "Fifteen six-ton lorry loads of panelling, ceilings, doors and carved beams went to the re-fitting of the Hall"), and considerable alterations have occurred since this re-fitting after 1945. Of the planted timbers, the ceiling beams and joists in the hall are from Beau Desert Manor, Staffordshire, and the church screen, linenfold panelling, and panelled door with Renaissance profile medallions are all of high quality.

A portion of this building lies in Martlesham civil parish.