Discoveries at Hall Place Bexley

RESEARCHES AND DISCOVERIES DISOOVERIES AT HALL PLAOE, BEXLEY In the course of repairs undertaken in 1971, the panelling lining the walls of the parlour in the west wing was removed. This revealed several items of interest which help to a further understanding of the architectural history of the house. Reference to the plan and notes in Arch. Cant., lxxi (1957), 153-61, will facilitate an understanding of the following descriptions. The stud partition across the south end of the parlour is now seen to be Tudor work except for the central opening and the short return at its west end. Recently, it has been underset with brickwork and the modern imitation half-timber facing on the south side replaced. Behind this, however, the basic sixteenth-century timber-framing was clearly 1 S'tUlsea; Notes &1 Queries, iii (1931), 190. 2 Sx. Arch. OoU., ciii (1965), 60-6. 3 Ibid. 209 RESEARCHES AND DISCOVERIES in evidence, with the suggestion of an original opening at the east end. In the west wall, between this partition and the bay window, there appeared a blocked Tudor window, about 5 ft. wide and 7 ft. 2 in. from cill to floor. On either side of the bay window the rubble wall had been rebuilt in Tudor brickwork for several feet. This is obvious evidence that the bay window was, in its original form, a Period TI Tudor insertion, but the present yellow-brick quoins of the window-opening indicate that the feature has been renewed at a much later date, possibly within the present century. The east wall showed another blocked Tudor window between the chapel and the parlour fireplace. It was situated just north of the junction with the hall and had been blocked, probably in Period II, with re-used mouldings and other medieval carved stones of the type found in great quantity elsewhere in the Tudor house. As previously stated, this is almost certainly monastic material derived from the dissolution of a religious house in the reign of Henry VIII. The width of this window was 4 ft. 3 in. and the cill wa.s 6 ft. 10 in. from the floor. Between it and the :fireplace, a narrow oblique passage, 2½ ft. wide, had been roughly hacked, N.W.-S.E., through the stonework to the north and the brickwork of the fireplace to communicate with the hall. From its unfinished appearance, it is doubtful if this opening was ever put to regular use. South of the fireplace the wall takes the form of a sixteenth-century stud partition. The illusion of a thick partition wall between hall and parlour, as shown in the 1957 plan, is due to there being a second stud and plaster partition on the hall side forming a hollow wall, and designed to mask the eastward projection of the fireplace and chimney when this was inserted in Period II. Possibly the Period I parlour fireplace was on the west side and was removed when the bay window was formed. P. J. TESTER 210