Ashbocking Hall

Ashbocking Hall is a former manor house dating from around 1530, with alterations made around 1630, 1755, and in the early 19th century. The building is timber-framed and plastered, with the main range covered in plastered brick on the front (garden) elevation. The west elevation features an exposed long-wall jetty from circa 1530, supported by two brackets rising from shafts with capitals. Below the jetty, there is some 17th-century plasterwork with small raised rusticated panels. The roofs are plaintiled, adorned with 19th-century undulating bargeboards and spike finials.

There are two notable external and rear chimneys made of mid or late 16th-century red brick, one of which displays a diaper pattern in burnt headers. Both chimneys have triple octagonal flues, primarily rebuilt in the 19th and 20th centuries, with diagonally-set square shafts. The building has two storeys and attics, featuring seven windows with early 19th-century small-pane sashes, some of which have been renewed in the 20th century. The early 19th-century entrance doorway is highlighted by a moulded cornice.

The parlour wing at the west end retains much of its 16th and early 17th-century work, including a 16th-century brick buttress at the southwest corner with two arched niches of uncertain purpose. Several main beams and joists are decorated with multiple roll mouldings. In the hall, there is a fine wide Caen stone fireplace from the late 16th or early 17th century, featuring a 4-centred arched lintel with carved spandrels and an arabesque frieze with traces of colour. The roof of the parlour wing is of particular interest, exhibiting a hybrid early 16th-century style with principal rafters and butt purlins supported by heavy wind-braces, while each rafter couple has straight collars in the medieval style.

One chamber contains a fine but altered plaster ceiling from around 1630, featuring moulded ribs and decorative roses and fleurs-de-lys at the intersections. Another chamber showcases complete early 17th-century wainscotting with Corinthian pilasters. Beneath a staircase in the main range, there is a large plaster cartouche inscribed with the date 1755, likely marking the time of significant rebuilding. The interior underwent considerable refurbishing around 1800. The building is also surrounded by an incomplete medieval moat.