Rochford Hall is a manor in

Rochford Rochford is a town and civil parish in the Rochford (district), Rochford District in Essex, England, north of Southend-on-Sea, from London and from Chelmsford. At the 2011 census, the Civil parishes in England, civil parish had a population ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, England. During the reign of King

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

, it belonged to Thomas Boleyn, who was then Viscount Rochford, and it was the marital home of his daughter

Mary Boleyn Mary Boleyn, also known as Lady Mary, (Antonia Fraser, ''The Wives of Henry VIII'' (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1992), p. 119 – 19 or 30 July 1543) was the sister of List of English royal consorts, English queen consort Anne Boleyn, whose fami ...

, sister of

Anne Boleyn Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the Wives of Henry VIII, second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and execution, by beheading ...

, and Mary's second husband, Sir William Stafford. It is now privately owned by Rochford Hundred Golf Club where it acts as the clubhouse and is a Grade I listed building.

History

The manor was originally built in 1216, which is the date carved into an old

joist A joist is a horizontal structural member used in Framing (construction), framing to span an open space, often between Beam (structure), beams that subsequently transfer loads to vertical members. When incorporated into a floor framing system, joi ...

, and some of the arched doorways are original. In its 16th century form Rochford Hall comprised a sprawling turreted manor with a

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch dug around a castle, fortification, building, or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. Moats can be dry or filled with water. In some places, moats evolved into more extensive water d ...

and

great hall A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, castle or a large manor house or hall house in the Middle Ages. It continued to be built in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries, although by then the family used the great cha ...

. Rochford Hall belonged to Sir Thomas Boleyn, father of Anne, as part of his rich inheritance from his mother Margaret Butler. Sir Thomas was created

Viscount Rochford Viscount Rochford is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of England. The first creation was made in favour of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, Sir Thomas Boleyn in 1525 by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII. The title was ...

in 1525 and Earl of Wiltshire and Ormonde 1529, and his title derived from his ownership of Rochford Hall. Following the second marriage of Anne's elder sister Mary to William Stafford in 1534, Rochford Hall was given to the couple as their principal residence. In 1550 the Rochford estate was sold to Richard, Lord Rich. By the late 17th Century Rochford Hall was owned by the Child Family of

Wanstead House Wanstead House was a mansion built to replace the earlier Wanstead Hall. It was commissioned in 1715, completed in 1722 and demolished in 1825. Its gardens now form the municipal Wanstead Park in the London Borough of Redbridge. History Construc ...

, Essex, later Earl Tylney. It then descended with the Wanstead Estate to

James Tylney-Long Sir James Tylney-Long, 7th Baronet (1736 – 28 November 1794) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons for 32 years from 1762 to 1794. The eldest son of Sir Robert Long, 6th Baronet and his wife Emma Child, he succeeded his ...

, his daughter Catherine Tylney-Long and via the Long-Wellesley Family to

Henry Wellesley, 1st Earl Cowley Henry Richard Charles Wellesley, 1st Earl Cowley (17 June 1804 – 15 July 1884), known as The Lord Cowley between 1847 and 1857, was a British diplomat. He served as British Ambassador to France between 1852 and 1867. Background and educat ...

. He sold it to a local gentleman farmer in 1867. Rochford Hall was usually let, on long leases, or used by the Steward of the Rochford or greater Essex Estates of the Tylney-Long family.ERO D/DGn 384-394 There have been many additions and alterations to the manor over the centuries, not least a catastrophic fire in 1791. The stained glass replica window in the main hall consists of three

coats-of-arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievem ...

of previous owners including the crest of Anne Boleyn.

Rochford Estate

References

{{Coord, 51.58092, N, 0.69858, E, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title 1216 establishments in England Buildings and structures completed in 1216 Country houses in Essex Tudor England Grade I listed houses Grade I listed buildings in Essex

Hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and the Early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gre ...

Mary Boleyn