Berden Hall | |
Map Type: | United Kingdom Essex |
Architectural Style: | Elizabethan |
Building Type: | Private house, stately home |
Coordinates: | 51.9447°N 0.1336°W |
Location: | Berden, Uttlesford, Essex, England |
Completion Date: | 1580s |
Berden Hall is a Grade II* listed Elizabethan country house in Berden, in the Uttlesford District of Essex, England. The house was built in the 1580s. In 2012 the house was on the market for £3.5 million.
A manor house existed in Berden in medieval times when the Rochford family were lords of the manor here and probably founded the nearby priory.[1] In 1583 it passed to Sir Thomas Ramsey who gave the estate and priory to the mayor of London and governors of several hospitals.[1]
The current red brick house is Elizabethan, built in the 1580s.[2] The house is very similar to Toseland Hall in Huntingdonshire, built about 20 years later, with an identical outline, but different details.[2] [3] Further additions were made in the 17th century when it was owned by the Meade family,[4] and the rainwater heads bear the date 1655.[5] In the 1780s Thomas Hawkes owned Berden Hall,[6] and in 1801 it still belonged to the Hawkes family.[7]
Berden Hall became a Grade II* listed building on 26 November 1951.[5] In June 2012 the house was on the market for £3.75 million with Bidwells.
Clive Aslet of The Daily Telegraph describes the "thick lime mortar joints that give a sparkle to Berden Hall’s facades", and the red bricks used on the house which are longer and thinner than those later used during the Georgian period.[8] The house has three straight gables to each side and mullion-and-transom-cross windows, dated to the 17th century.[9] There is a triple arch at the central doorway to the house, and inside is a winding wide Tudor staircase.[9] The house has eight bedrooms, one of which is a master suite with two dressing rooms, a reception hall, drawing room, sitting room, dining room, kitchen, utility room, cloakroom, five bathrooms, two studies, a snooker room, a squash and tennis court and an indoor swimming pool, and outer staff buildings and stable block.[10] The gardens contain a lake, footbridge and paddock in about 17 acres. There is a granary to the east of the house, about south of the village church.[11]