Greys Court

Greys Court is a country house at Rotherfield Greys, of Grade I importance. The building dates from the 14th century with a late 16th-century front, 18th-century interiors, and 19th and 20th-century alterations.

The main structure is built of flint with brick banding, particularly to the cross-gables, and is roofed with plain old tiles and brick stacks. It follows a double-depth plan with a rear wing, rising to 2 storeys and an attic across a 3-bay range.

The front elevation features a central studded door with a plain stone arched surround, flanked by 19th-century 2-light stone mullioned windows. To left and right are 20th-century stone mullioned and transom windows of 5 lights. The first floor has 2 stone cross-windows with flattened arches to the top lights at the centre, and 3-light stone mullion and transom windows with flattened arches to left and right. Single casement windows flank the centre. Three parapeted cross-gables to the roof each carry a 2-light mullioned window.

The right return features a half-oval 2-storey stone bay to the left, rusticated at ground floor level and ashlar above with a crenellated parapet. This bay has 3 round-headed sashes to each floor. The ground floor right has three 12-pane sashes with Gibbs surrounds, while the first floor has three 6-pane sashes with shouldered architraves. A single 6-pane sash with shouldered architrave lights the cross-gable to the right.

The left return has a gabled brick porch, probably from the 17th century, with 2 round brick arches at ground floor and a brick oriel window to the first floor featuring a stone mullion and transom window. A 4-light mullioned window appears at ground-floor right, while the first floor right has a 17th-century panel tracery window with a 3-light mullioned window to the gable above.

The rear elevation shows irregular projections of various periods with irregular fenestration and a gabled roof.

The interior begins with a central hall to the front, square in plan with a patterned stone floor. Round-headed panelled double doors lead to the staircase hall, flanked by single Doric pilasters to a wood surround, with glazed niches to left and right. The ceiling features plasterwork with eagles bearing palms in relief at the corners.

The dining room to the left of the hall has a Georgian fireplace and a bracketed cornice to the ceiling. The drawing room to the right displays fine rococo plasterwork, probably executed by Thomas Roberts of Oxford around 1750, with swags of fruit and flowers to the walls and conch shells with fruit and flowers to the spandrels of the bay window. The ceiling has a bracketed cornice, and there is a contemporary fireplace with a key-pattern frieze and entablature supported on Ionic columns.

Behind the entrance hall, the staircase hall contains an 18th-century pine dog-leg staircase with a landing. The kitchen, to the left of the staircase hall, retains a blocked fireplace, probably from the 15th century, and a walled-up buttery doorway flanked by 2 recesses.

On the first floor, the main bedroom above the dining room has a 15th or 16th-century fireplace and an ornamental plaster ceiling and frieze.

The house has a documented history extending back to its origins. A licence to crenellate was granted in 1347 to Sir John de Grey. The property passed to the Crown in 1485 and was subsequently granted to Robert Knollys by letters patent in 1514. It was sold to William Paul of Braywick in Berkshire in 1686. William's daughter Catherine married Sir William Stapleton, Baronet, in 1724. Alterations to the drawing room were possibly carried out by Henry Keene of Oxford.