Little Warley Hall

Details

BRENTWOOD

TQ68NW LITTLE WARLEY HALL LANE 723-1/11/224 Little Warley 21/10/58 Little Warley Hall (Formerly Listed as: WARLEY HALL LANE, Little Warley Little Warley Hall)

II*

Formerly known as: Little Warley Hall HALL LANE. Hall and service unit of a larger building (once extending to the W) now a house. Early C16, c1600, C20. Red brick with diaper work in black burnt headers in essentially English bond, peg-tile roof (some C20 flat tile repairs), stack intruded through apex towards W end. Rectangular plan. EXTERIOR: 2 storey and attic. All windows of the house are C20 with wooden mullioned and transomed frames and lattice panes. N front elevation early C16 hall and upper chamber block. Reduced service bay to E with hipped roof now abutting end wall of upper chamber. N front elevation of hall dominated by projecting 2-storeyed porch to cross passage at E end and lateral chimney-stack central to hall. String course between ground and first floor. Porch has 2-centred doorway with moulded brick square hood-mould, C20 door, diagonally boarded with studs and strap hinges. Porch first floor, original window opening partially blocked with smaller windows of 3 lights, hood mould as over door, crow stepped gable above. Lateral stack has canted sides. 2 circular stacks with zigzag decoration, bell bases with trefoil corbel table, one plain square stack behind at roof apex. Hall and upper chamber, 2 windows each, one each side of the stack. Three 3-light, one 4-light. 2 lines of straight jointing of the brickwork through both floors to the W of the stack suggest rebuilding of the hall and chamber round the originally largest windows at the high end. Service bay, ground floor has original window opening with chamfered brickwork, now with 3-light window, above on first floor, C20 2-light window. To E, C20 single storey link and cross-wing block, not of special interest and not included in this listing. Rear, S elevation, hall and chamber block has a full height C19 battered brick buttress added on SW corner. Off centre, to E, projecting garderobe tower with diaper work rising to the upper chamber, arched opening, now blocked at ground level, roof pitch continuous with main roof, small fixed window on upper floor. Large areas of walling to the W of the garderobe, where diapering absent, and burnt headers randomly distributed, suggest considerable later rebuilding. Ground floor, to E, original rectangular rear cross-passage door opening, double chamfer moulded with original wooden moulded head of door frame. Doorway now has C20 French windows in similar style to other windows of house, similar French window at W end. Each side of garderobe tower, one 3-light, one 2-light window. First floor has three 3-light windows. W elevation, one 3-light window on each floor, brickwork different on upper floor, a rebuilding in Flemish bond. Ground floor brickwork has wooden, inserted blocks horizontally at intervals, perhaps for attaching panelling to walls of solar room now demolished. E elevation mainly obscured, attic window in gable. INTERIOR: hall and cross-entry division apparent. Inner porch doorway has square door frame in brick and timber with rich moulding (roll in hollow, cyma and hollow chamfers) 4-centred arched doorhead with rose and molet in spandrels. Interior spandrels decorated with shields of arms. One 4-centred arched service door exposed with deep mouldings (double ogee with high stop), spandrels decorated with a rose and a shield. Ground-floor hall has high ceiling with roll moulded cornice, principal and common joists board panelled between, also, central to original hall length, large fireplace with 4-centred arch and double ogee mouldings, spandrels have foliage and shield decoration. A second door, similar to the service door leads from hall to parlour area. First floor chamber was apparently as ornate at the hall - the high cornice remains, similar in style. A newel staircase, c1600, having flat balusters with raking mouldings, moulded handrail and square moulded newels is set within the hall area, immediately to the W of the garderobe tower. The hall ceiling has been cut away to accommodate it and secondary internal partitioning surrounds it. There are 3 re-set and partly reworked original C16 doorways giving hall-stair and first floor access. Also the upper end of the hall has been divided off by a cross wall, probably C19, that carries the stack intruded through the roof. Until the late C19, a N facing double gabled early C17 plaster fronted range extended to the W (painting held by owner). The house has been restored a number of times. It is probable that the early C17 stair has been repositioned in the C19 subdivision of the 2 ground floor rooms and may have come from the C17 western range, now gone. The service bay has been considerably altered but the original end-braced axial first floor joist with common plain joists mortices is exposed. (VCH: 176; RCHM: SE Essex : Monument 2: 90; The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Essex: 1965-: 286).

Listing NGR: TQ6043288571

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

373493

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
An Inventory of Essex South East, (1923), 90
Doubleday, AH, Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Essex, (1978), 176
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Essex, (1965), 286

End of official list entry

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