Description

RAMSEY AND PARKESTON MICHAELSTOW ROAD
TM 23 SW
2/64 Michaelstow Hall
(Chafford School)

GV II

House, now special school. 1903, in Neo-Georgian style. Red brick in Flemish
bond with limestone dressings, roofed with slate and lead. Complex plan
comprising main range facing SE, longer parallel range to rear, billiard room in
left front corner projecting forwards, and service range to right, with 6
internal stacks in main part of house. 2-storey flat-roofed extensions to right
and rear right, c.1920. Single-storey flat-roofed extension to rear of main
block, c.1960. Covered corridor from left rear corner connecting with smaller
house to NW. The main building is of 2 storeys with attics, the billiard room
of one storey, parts of the service range of one storey. The central part of
the SE (entrance) elevation is set back, with a balcony in front forming a
recessed porch. 2:3:2 window arrangement, the outer windows being sashes of 24
lights on the ground floor, 16 lights on the first floor, the 2 inner windows on
the ground floor being sashes of 24 lights, the 3 inner windows on the first
floor being French windows opening on to the balcony. All the windows have
near-flat arches of rubbed brick; the outer ground-floor windows have aprons of
rubbed brick. The central first-floor window has a canopy or blind-box on
scrolled brackets. In the attic storey, 5 sashes of 12 lights in dormers with
moulded heads, alternately segmental and pedimental. All the sashes have
ovolo-moulded glazing bars. Central double half-glazed doors with sidelights
and overlight. Moulded brick plinth. 4 Ionic columns and 2 Ionic pilasters,
the balcony forming the entablature with balustrade. Lightly moulded stone band
at first-floor level on side blocks. Moulded cornice with egg-and-dart ornament
on plain brackets. Quoins of alternate blocks of stone and rubbed brick.
Hipped roofs. The billiard room has a Venetian window with heads and piers of
rubbed brick and a projecting triple keystone, similar quoins and similar
cornice to the gable, and a rectangular lantern with hipped glass roof on
pilasters with a moulded cornice. Moulded cast-iron gutters. Moulded cornices
on the stacks. An added water tank on the main roof has displaced a
bell-turret, which is now on brick piers on the ground one metre NE of the main
block; it has 4 wooden piers, a zinc domed roof, wooden finial, and a hung bell
marked 'J. Warner and Sons Ltd., 1903'. The NW (garden) elevation is of similar
style and detail, the central part set back, with some differences - a central
Venetian window on the first floor with 2 round lights above and a shallow
balcony with balustrade, and below it a small 6-light sash with projecting
triple keystone. In the left block is a doorway, now enclosed by a covered
corridor to the single-storey extension; its windows are tripartite sashes, with
bullseye glass on the ground floor. Most of the interior features and finishes
are original. The house was built for a Mr. Garland, architect unknown, and was
sold to Essex County Council in 1919 for use as a special school; at the time of
survey, October 1985, it was standing empty, offered for sale. 'In the
comfortably Neo-Georgian style of the day, similar to houses by Ernest Newton
(Sir N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England - Essex, 1965, 320). The garden
elevation is adversely affected by the single-storey extension.

Listing NGR: TM2201330744

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Michaelstowe Hall at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q15253315

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)