Middleton Hall

Details

BRENTWOOD

TQ69SW MIDDLETON HALL LANE 723-1/9/91 (East side) 20/02/76 Middleton Hall

GV II

House, now preparatory department of Brentwood School (part qv). C18, additions 1898-1900. Red brick with stone dressings; old peg tile and C20 tile roofs, mainly behind parapets. Elizabethan style. L-plan of early E-W block and added wing to N at W end. EXTERIOR: 2 and 3 storeys. S front elevation, plain C18 rectangular block, brickwork ruddled and tuck pointed, particularly evident at W end. Parapet with cornice and lower stucco band, rebuilt c1985, at same time stucco quoins removed but scars remain. C18 fenestration - of E end, 2 storey, 4 first-floor window range, deep sashes, 3x4 panes - of W end, 3 storey, 2 window range, widely spaced, one ground and one first-floor window, sashes, 3x4 panes, 2nd floor, one 3x4 panes, one 3x2 panes. 2 stacks above, to W. Central, late C19 3 tiered stone porch in Elizabethan style, stepped back, ground floor 4 Tuscan columns with central elliptical headed doorway and 2 round-headed side lights. Door, 2-leaved, upper glazing and lower sunk panels, balustrade above with central foliage panel. First floor, T-shaped mullioned and transomed bay window, 1:3:1 lights with pierced strap work balustrade swept up to centre. Second floor, broad 5-light mullioned and transomed window surmounted by parapet with, taller central device, coping swept up to enclose. To each side similar late C19 mullioned and transomed windows, asymmetrical to accommodate existing difference in storeys. At E end, large late C19 stone and brick bay window on ground floor of 5 cants with similar windows, two 2x3, one 3x3, two 2x3, pierced strapwork parapet with central decorated lunette, parapet stepped over. Rear, N elevation, E half of C18 block exposed similar to W end of S front, 3 storey with 6 paired bays, first-floor windows sashes with glazing bars, 3x4 panes. Second floor similar, 3x2 panes. Ground floor, E end, large C19 canted bay window similar to one on S front, plain parapet, 3 cants, 2x3, two 3x3 and 2x3 panes. Two C19 narrow windows, 1x2 panes. Similar window 2x2 panes. Sash window with glazing bars, 3x4 panes, C18 type. Double sash window, each 3x4 lights. To W late C19 wing gable end with central stack and C20 ground floor projection. C19 sub-wing to W with large stack at roof apex. Ground floor, 2 mullioned and transomed windows, 2x2 lights, first floor, 2 narrow windows, 1x2 lights and corner diagonal oriel window on corbel, 1x2, 2x2, 1x2 lights. To E of C18 house, later C19 and C20 additions,not of special interest and not a part of this listing. The C18 stucco quoins survive at ground floor level at the E end. W end elevation, to S, C18 house, similar to other elevation with tuck pointing, parapet with cornice and stucco band, quoins removed. 3 storeys with sash windows, first floor 3x4 panes, second floor 3x2 panes. On both levels window second in from S altered, upper louvred, lower blocked. Ground floor, one C18 window at S end, 3x4 panes. To N, C19 5 cant bay window, similar to those on S and N elevations, N-S cants, blank, 2x2, 3x2, 2x2, sash with glazing bars, 3x4 panes. To N, C19 2 storeyed wing with recessed bay adjoining old house, ground floor, 5 panelled door with lights above and at sides, first floor, window, mullioned and transomed, 3x2 lights, then bay windows through both floors with attic gable, both windows mullioned and transomed, double 2x2 lights, pierced strapwork parapet above. Bay with flush windows and attic gable, both windows double 2x2 lights, bulls-eye with 4 keystones above in attic gable. N end, diagonal oriel on first floor, seen on N elevation. E end elevation. To S, 2-storey C18 house, similar to S elevation with quoins removed, ground floor obscured by later additions. First floor, at S end, two 3x4 sash windows with glazing bars, some brickwork, repointed, showing a vertical straight joint at the centre line. Behind, to N, C19 block with additional recessed linking bay to C18 house. Link has ground floor panelled door with lights above and to sides. Above, first floor window, 3x2 lights. Main C19 block has 5 bays with pierced parapet, end stacks and a facade gable with keystone roundel at N end. Second bay from S has tall ground floor window, elaborated with clasping pilasters and blank intermediate panels between pair of upper and pair of lower lights, above, strapwork and elliptical bulls-eye with 4 keystones. S to N, bays 1 and 2 windows have 2x2 lights, bay 3 has 1x2 lights, N bay, 3x2 lights. C20 ground floor extension to N, not of special interest. INTERIOR: considerably reworked in late C19 with late C18 and Jacobean style decoration of ceilings, friezes and fireplaces. Central staircase in C18 block now boarded in but in C18 style. The anomaly of both the 2 and 3 storey division of the C18 block apparently due to the C18 house once being L-shaped, of 3 storeys with the W end the principal front. Floor board alignment implies a central W-E passage from the W side. A thick internal wall breached through, running S-N on E side of present hallway appears once to have been a load-bearing wall, defining the rear extent of the house, which, from window evidence on the N side, continued as a wing towards the E. The 2 storied area to the SE appears to be a later C18 build, infilling an internal angle, hence the straight joint visible on the E side. When the parapet of the whole C18 house was renewed in c1985, timber-framing is said to have been found in the brick walling of the SE section. It may well be that the L-shape of the first brick build was dictated by an earlier C17 timber-framed building in the internal angle. If so, this would explain the anomalies and make the house an example of `alternate' rebuilding. The re-arrangement of the house making the S front the principal elevation is probably late C19, when the elaborate porch was added. A cellar lies beneath part of both C18 and C19 blocks. 2 brick culverts exit from the cellar beneath the N side of the C18 house, also a water cistern, now with a man-hole cover, lies to the E of the C18 house. Middleton Hall, together with the garden wall east and wall and railings west (qv) form a group.

Listing NGR: TQ6009894066

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LBS

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