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Historic Buildings of Essex
England
The object of this project is to provide information about historic buildings in the county of Dorset, with links to sub-projects for specific buildings as appropriate. GENi profiles of people associated with those establishments can be linked to this project and/or to individual projects where they have been set up.
Image right - Hedingham Castle in the village of Castle Hedingham, Braintree District, Essex
Image Geograph © Copyright Derek Voller and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence.
See Historic Buildings of Britain and Ireland - Main Page
If you have information about any of the Buildings mentioned below please share it here. If you have ancestors linked to any of the places please add them to the project.
Historic houses in alphabetical order
Including Castles, Abbeys, Priories, Manor Houses, Mansions, Stately Homes, Country houses, Estate houses, Courts, Halls, Parks and other listed buildings of historic interest.
Full sizes of the thumbnail images can be seen in the Gallery attached to the project or by clicking the thumbnail image. TIP - Use ctrl+the link to open the image in a separate tab, or use "back" to return to this project page) Sources for the images can be found in the image details as seen in the gallery.
Names with Bold links are to Geni profiles or projects. Other links take you to external biographical web pages. Please copy and paste the bullet used - ● - instead of * when adding items to the list.
A
● Abbotswick mall country house standing in a well-timbered garden with a small lake. It dates from about 1800 but was rebuilt early in the 20th century. In 1817 it was described as the seat of Adam Chadwick
● Audley End House
B
● Bassingbourne Hall
See The manor at Bassingbourne at Takeley, Essex
● 
Beeleigh Abbey
Image by JohnArmagh - Own work, Public Domain, Wiki
Beeleigh Abbey near Maldon in Essex, was a monastery constructed in 1180 for the White Canons, otherwise known as the Norbertines or Premonstratensians. The order linked the change of the separate life of monks in the 12th century with the retrospective life of the friar, who was considerably more active.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beeleigh_Abbey
● 
Belchamp Hall
Image Geograph © Copyright Robin Webster and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence.
Belchamp Hall is a Queen Anne style country house in Belchamp Walter, near Braintree, Essex, England. It is a privately owned Grade II* listed building.
It is constructed of red brick in two storeys in a double pile plan form with a gabled peg tile roof with attics. The front facade has nine bays with a parapet. The central bay projects and is surmounted by a pediment. The house was built c.1720 in place of an original Elizabethan house and offers good views across the valley of the Belchamp Brook to the village of Bulmer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belchamp_Hall
● Berden Hall
See Berden History
● Blake Hall
● 
Borley Rectory
Image by Unknown - Museo britannico del soprannaturale, Public Domain, WIKI
Haunted (image after it was burnt down) - Built for the Reverend H.D.E Bull 1863, Borley was constructed on the site of a Benedictine Monastery. Both the Reverend Bull and his son Harry passed away in Borley’s ‘Blue room’ which was reported to be the most haunted spot in the house. Famously Harry Price leased the Rectory for a year so he could conduct his investigations with a team of researchers. See Borley Rectory, Essex on Haunted Island and Britannia The Most Haunted House in England.
● Bourne Mill
● Bower Hall (demolished)
● Braxted Park
● Brickwall House
● Bridge Cottage
C
● Castle House
● Chapel of St Peter on the Wall
● Coalhouse Fort
● Colchester Castle
● Coopersale House Coopersale House was built at the end of the 17th century by John Archer. In the later 1730s, the then-owner William Archer called in Adam Holt, gardener at Wanstead Park, to carry out an extensive scheme of landscaping for which detailed records survive.
● Copped Hall
● Creeksea Place Manor
● Cressing Temple Barns
D
● Danbury Place
Images above British Library - FLICKR: Image Right by Engraver Thomas Higham, after A. Gray - http://www.antiquemapsandprints.com/SCANSF/F-6131.jpg, Public Domain, WIKI
The property of Dysney Fytch Esq. It was a country house built by Walter Mildmay, and his second son Humphrey Mildmay resided there. It came to Disney Fytche, through his wife's uncle Thomas Fytche, who tried to sell it in 1812, to John Goslin, the deal foundering on bad debts. Lady Hillary, divorced from her husband by 1812, continued to live at Danbury Place until her father died, then moving to Boulogne.
● Debden Hall, Uttlesford (demolished)
● Dial House
● Down Hall
● Durhamford Manor
● Dutch Cottage
E
● Eastbury Manor House once part of the demesne of Barking Abbey. It was built in the 1570s by a wealthy merchant Clement Sisley, who purchased the land after the dissolution of Barking Abbey.[1] It was probably the first brick built building in the area at that time; it had glass windows and very high chimneys, indicating the wealth of the owner. Glass was probably imported from Italy as at that time English glass was relatively poor in quality. A dendrochronology survey dates the timber roof to 1566[2] and there is documentary evidence which describes the dates 1572 carved in the brickwork and 1573 on a lead water spout indicating finishing touches to the building. Recent research has shown that in the early 17th century the house was in the occupation of a Catholic family with close family connections to some of the principal conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. A local legend reported from the early 18th century that the Gunpowder Plot was first conceived in the house has however long been discredited. The house fell into increasing dilapidation from the late 18th century. The Great Tower Staircase was demolished by 1814. Wooden flooring and original fireplaces were removed in the 1830s. By the late 19th century only the west wing of the house was habitable. In 1918 the house was bought by the National Trust and was restored. In 1931 it was opened as the Museum of Barking. Although owned by the National Trust the house is managed by the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.
● Essex House was a house that fronted the Strand in London. Originally called Leicester House, it was built around 1575 for Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, and was renamed Essex House after being inherited by his stepson, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, after Leicester's death in 1588. The property occupied the site where the Outer Temple, part of the London headquarters of the Knights Templar, had previously stood, and was immediately adjacent to the Middle Temple, then one of the four principal Inns of Court.[1] The house was substantial; in 1590, it was recorded as having 42 bedrooms, plus a picture gallery, kitchens, outhouses, a banqueting suite and a chapel. Essex’s mother, Lettice Knollys, leased out the house for a while, but she moved in later with her new husband, Sir Christopher Blount, as well as her son and his family. After the executions of Blount and Essex in 1601, she continued to live there until her death, leasing part of the house to James Hay, the first Earl of Carlisle. The house then became the property of Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, who leased part of it to his brother-in-law, William Seymour, 1st Marquess of Hertford. After the English Civil War, the family lost ownership as a result of their debts. Following the Restoration and the death of William Seymour, Sir Orlando Bridgeman lived in the house for a time. When the Duchess of Somerset died in 1674, she left the house to her granddaughter, whose husband, Sir Thomas Thynne, sold it, along with the adjoining lands and properties. The main part of the house was demolished some time between 1674 and 1679. Essex Street was built on part of the site.
F
● Fillol's Hall
G
● Gosfield Hall
● Grange Barn
H
● Hadleigh Castle
● Harwick Redoubt
● Hedingham Castle in the village of Castle Hedingham, Braintree District, Essex, England, is a Norman motte-and-bailey castle with a stone keep. For four centuries it was the primary seat of the de Vere family, Earls of Oxford. Hedingham Castle may occupy the site of an earlier castle believed to have been built in the late 11th or early 12th century by Aubrey de Vere I, a Norman baron. Hedingham was one of the largest manors among those acquired by Aubrey I. The Domesday Book records that he held the manor of Hedingham by 1086, and he ordered that vineyards be planted.
● 
Hill Hall
Image Geograph © Copyright Stephen Richards and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence
Hill Hall is an Elizabethan mansion located in Theydon Mount near Epping, Essex, England. Although owned by English Heritage, the building consists of many private apartments. It is a grade I listed building
● Hylands House
● 
Hylands Park Widfprd
Image Geograph © Copyright Stephen Richards and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence.
Built for Sir John Comyns in 1726 in more or less the form we see today, but c1797 a new owner, Cornelius Kortwright, a Dutch merchant, had the house stuccoed and added the grand Ionic portico and the right wing (the other wing was added c1820). Later additions were removed by Esmond Abraham in his restoration for Chelmsford Borough Council, c1986. Grade II* listed.
The council owns the house and surrounding park.
I
● Ingatestone Hall
---
J
K
L
● Layer Marney Tower
● Leaden Hall
● 
Leez Priory
Image Geograph © Copyright Peter Stack and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence.
Leez Priory is a 16th-century mansion in Little Leighs, a small parish in the district of Chelmsford in the county of Essex, England. The civil parish boundary between Felsted and Great Waltham crosses the priory, so that it partially lies in Felsted and partially in Great Waltham. The priory was designated a Grade I listed building in 1952.
M
● Marks Hall (demolished)
● Michaelstowe Hall
● Mistley Towers
● Monk's House
● Mountfitchet Castle
● Moyns Park
N
O
● 
Orford House
Image By CRWorthington - Lowden Construction, CC BY-SA 3.0, WIKI
● Oxley House
P
● Paycocke's House
● Prittlewell Priory
● Priors Hall Barn
Q
● Queen Elizabeth's Huntog Lodge
R
● Rose Hill
S
● Shalom Hall
● 
Spains Hall
Image Geograph © Copyright Robert Edwards and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence.
The hall is named after Hervey de Ispania, who held the manor at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086. Since then, the land has been continuously owned and occupied by three families—the de Ispania family, the Kempe family, who acquired it when Margery de Ispania married Nicholas Kempe in the early fifteenth century, and the Ruggles family (later the Ruggles-Brise family). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spains_Hall
● St. Botolph’s Priory
● St. John’s Abbey Gateway
● Sturgeons House
T
● Terling Place
● Tilbury Fort
U-V
W
● Waltham Abbey Gatehouse and Bridge
X-Y-Z
References and Sources
Essex Specific
- Stately homes, castles and gardens in Essex - HHA
- Essex Historic Buildings
- Essex Houses and gardens
- WIKI List of places of interest in Essex
General
- Stravaiging.com
- Secret Scotland
- Canmore
- Historic Scotland
- National Trust
- English Heritage
- WIKI List of country houses in the UK
- Britain's Finest
- Britain Express
- Lankdmark Trust
- Historic Houses Association - represents 1,500 houses in the UK
- Hudson's Historic Houses and Gardens - UK - guidebook of over 2,000 houses open to the public
- The DiCamillo Companion to British & Irish Country Houses - database of over 7,000 houses
- Lost Heritage - A Memorial to the Lost Country Houses of England - list of over 1,700 houses
- National Trust for Historic Preservation - online database of historic houses in the United State
- - http://www.hha.org.uk/ Historic Houses Association
- WIKI Treasure Houses of England
- List of country houses in the United Kingdom
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Other Pages for Historic Buildings of English Counties
Historic Buildings of Cumberland - Today's Cumbria includes parts of the historic counties of Westmorland and Lancashire
Rutland now East Midlands
Shropshire (Salop)
Historic Buildings of Sussex divided into two projects
Westmorland Now Cumbria/Cumberland
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