Rochford Hall is a manor in

Rochford Rochford is a town in Essex, England, north of Southend-on-Sea, from London and from Chelmsford, the county town. At the 2011 census, the Civil parishes in England, civil parish, which includes the town and London Southend Airport, had a popu ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, 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 best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

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

Anne Boleyn Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and of her execution by beheading for treason and other charges made her a key ...

, 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 to span an open space, often between beams that subsequently transfer loads to vertical members. When incorporated into a floor framing system, joists serve to provide stiffness to the s ...

, 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, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

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, and continued to be built in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries, although by then the family used the great ...

. 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 Sir Thomas Boleyn in 1525 by King Henry VIII. The title was taken from Boleyn's Rochford country estate in Essex. In 15 ...

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 Construct ...

, Essex, later

Earl Tylney Earl Tylney, of Castlemaine in the County of Kerry, was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created on 11 June 1731 for Richard Child, 1st Viscount Castlemaine. The Child family descended from the merchant, economist and colonial administr ...

. 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 Catherine Tylney-Long (2 October 1789 – 12 September 1825) was a 19th-century British heiress, known as "The Wiltshire Heiress." Life She was the eldest daughter of Sir James Tylney-Long, 7th Baronet, of Draycot, Wiltshire. Her only brother ...

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 educati ...

. 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 latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

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 Country houses in Essex Tudor England Grade I listed buildings in Essex