Description

1. BOREHAM NEW HALL AVENUE 5213 New Hall

TL 71SW 5/2 29.12.52.

1

2. Now the Convent and School of the Cannonesses of the Holy Sepulchre. It is the surviving wing of a great quadrangular palace built by Henry VIII soon after 1518 and called by him Beaulieu. He rebuilt or enlarged an existing house which was already an important building, and made a magnificent building which was one of his favourite residences. Mary Tudor lived here much of the time between 1532 and 1533. In 1573 Elizabeth granted New Hall to Thomas Ratcliffe, Earl of Sussex, who made considerable alterations and probably largely rebuilt the north wing which is the present building. In 1622 the Sussex family sold it to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham for £30,000. Cromwell had it for a short time during the Civil war but sold it. In 1660, at the Restoration, it came into the possession of George Monck, Duke of Albemarle, who lived here splendidly. In 1713 his widow sold it to Benjamin Hoare who removed many of the fine fittings for the new house he built - Boreham House. In 1737 it was sold to John Olmins Baron Waltham of Philipstoun. He demolished all but the north wing and remodelled the whole thing into a "gentleman's residence". In 1798 it was bought from his son for the English Community of the Cannonesses of the Holy Sepulchre (the nuns had fled from the English house at Liege) a Roman Catholic Order. In 1943 the building suffered extensive bomb damage, but it has since been exactly restored. There are extensive new additions and alterations. The present building is of red brick and consists of a long range, formerly the north side of the quadrangle, with smaller wings at each end and a small courtyard on the east side with C18 ranges on the east and south. The south front of the long range has 7 half octagonal 2 storeyed bays each with stone mullioned and transomed windows with 24 lights in the upper storey and 16 in the ground storey windows. A parapet with a stone modillion cornice and a moulded stringcourse continues round each bay. In the centre and between the bays there is a small stone pilaster rising from the stringcourse and surmounted by a square pier with a ball finial. The central bay has a Tudor arched doorway in a stone Roman Doric doorcase With plain columns, triglyph frieze with ornamented metope, cornice and a carved coat of arms in a panel framed by pilasters, frieze and cornice. The parapet has a central sundial with a segmental pediment bearing the date 1660. The west half of this long range was severely damaged in 1943 but it has been very carefully restored. The short wing on the west was probably rebuilt in the C18 and much of it has been restored to match the rest of the south front. The east wing has a variety of features dating from the early Cl6 columns in the basement to the Cl8 wood clock tower on the roof. On the east side facing the courtyard are some fine original windows to each storey including the basement, the upper storey windows have 6 lights. The north side of the long range has been much altered and added to in the C2O, but it still retains the 7 chimney stacks with 2 and 3 octagonal shafts - all are restored and some are rebuilt in facsimile. There are large square bay windows of 3 ranges of lights as on the south front, but the other alterations are extensive. The east courtyard has on the south side a C18 three storeyed range of 6 windows with segmental heads and a modern covered way with a slate roof on the ground storey; the east side has a C18 range of 12 windows, double-hung sashes with glazing bars, in segmental heads. There is a parapet with a small pediment over a gateway with 2 reset C16 arches and a covered way to the ground storey. The north side of this courtyard is a C20 building. The interior has few C16 features apart from the basement of the east wing, but there are many C18 features, especially in the long range which has a central Chapel of the mid C18 and altered again after 1798, it contains the magnificent carved achievement of arms of Henry VIII, formerly over his gatehouse.

Listing NGR: TL7346010284

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