East Hall Farmhouse (EHER 38596)

A 15th century or earlier farmhouse. It is timber framed and rough rendered with a tiled roof, hipped and formerly jettied. It is a two-storey building with the original door head, tie beams and ground floor braces. A rear range was added in the 20th century.

August 1986. Grade II listed. A 15th century or earlier timber framed and rough rendered house with a 20th century rear range. The house is now two dwellings. It has a hipped roof covered in red plain tile and there is a gablet to the right which was formerly jettied. There is an off centre red brick chimney stack. The building is two storeys. Internal features from the right (East) cottage include an original segmental door head to the rear wall, and halved arch bracing to walls. There was no access to the left (West) cottage at time of re-survey. <1> See photos <2>. The manor of East Hall was included in the lands of Effescestra in the ownership of the Abbey of St. Valery from the forfeited possessions of Turchil. At the time of the Domesday Book the manor included 200 acres of land. When the property became classed as an “alien Priory” the foreign owners were made to sell their land. The Abbey sold it to William of Wykeham, in 1391, who founded New College. Under the ownership of New College the estate seems to have enlarged greatly to over 399 acres of land and included a large area of the marshes including Decoy marshes, Chapel Fields and Quaker marshes. A later estate map shows the land largely as two distinct blocks with a right of way joining them that leads through the land belonging to East Land Farm. Court rolls exist for the manor from 1300 and the lessees records from 1451. There may have been a quay associated with the manor in the medieval period that is recorded early in the post-medieval period. Easthall farmhouse is possibly late medieval in date and may have been built on the site of an earlier manor house. New College continued to lease the estate throughout the post-medieval period. One, John Pynchon, gentleman, in his will of 1573, bequeaths the stock of cattle on East Hall, “50 milch kine, 400 ewes and 20 rams” emphasising the continued importance of pasture farming on the marshlands. Field name evidence suggests that there was a Quay, “Key Haven”, lying between Wymarks and East Hall at one time. An Elizabethan list of landing places dated to 1573 includes this Quay. An estate map dated 1768 records the holdings as 391 acres. In 1880 the estate was sold to George and William Small who had leased the land since 1866. They sold it soon after to the Ironmongers Company, the estate consisted of over 404 acres. In 1919 it was bought by Strutt and Parker (Farms) Ltd who had been earlier tenants. It is now owned by the Othona Community and Strutt and Parker Farms continue to be the tenants. The current farmhouse building dates from around the 15th century. It is timber framed and rough rendered with a tiled roof, hipped and formerly jettied. It is a two-storey building with the original door head, tie beams and ground floor braces. A rear range was added in the 20th century. <3>