| Ingatestone Hall | |
|---|---|
 Ingatestone Hall in 2015 | |
  Ingatestone Hall Location of Ingatestone Hall in Essex | |
| General information | |
| Type | Country House |
| Architectural style | Tudor |
| Location | Ingatestone,Essex, United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 51°39′41.5″N0°23′25.3″E / 51.661528°N 0.390361°E /51.661528; 0.390361 |
| Construction started | 1539 |
| Completed | 1556 |
| Technical details | |
| Material | English bond brickwork |
| Designations | Grade I listed |
| Website | |
| Official website | |
Ingatestone Hall is aGrade I listed 16th-centurymanor house inEssex,England. It is located outside the village ofIngatestone, approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) south west ofChelmsford and 25 miles (40 km) north east ofLondon. The house was built by SirWilliam Petre, and his descendants (the Barons Petre) live in the house to this day. Part of the house is leased out as offices while the currentLord Petre's son and heir apparent lives in a private wing with his family. The Hall formerly housed Tudor monarchs such asQueen Elizabeth I.
The hall is open to the public on selected afternoons between Easter and September.
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William Petre bought Ingatestone manor soon after theDissolution of the Monasteries for some £850 and commissioned the building of the house.
In June 1561,Queen Elizabeth I spent several nights at Ingatestone Hall on herroyal progress, where she heldcourt.[1] The Petre family laid on a lavish welcome, procuring food and drink and decorating the house.[2]
In November 1564, Lady Katherine Gray was transferred to the charge of Sir William Petre. For two years she was in his custody, and resided at Ingatestone Hall; where she was then removed to the care of Sir John Wentworth (a kinsman of Petre's first wife) at Gosfield Hall.In September 1553, a courtier lent money toWilliam Petre to play at "pass dice" withMary I of England atHampton Court.[3]
The Petre family wererecusants, remaining loyal to theRoman Catholic Church after theEnglish Reformation had turned theKingdom of England into aProtestant country.Statutes were passed prohibiting Catholic worship in England, theBook of Common Prayer was established as the official liturgy of theChurch of England, and practising Catholics faced severe punishments. Like many noble Catholic families, the Petres worshipped in secret, holding clandestineCatholic Mass in the private family chapel at Ingatestone Hall.
The first Baron Petre, Sir John Petre, befriended the composerWilliam Byrd, also a Catholic. In 1589–90, Byrd spent Christmas with the family at Ingatestone along with John Petre's half sisterDorothy Petre and her husbandNicholas Wadham later co-founders ofWadham College, Oxford and in 1593 Byrd took up residence in the neighbouring village ofStondon Massey. Byrd supported the Petre family's covert Catholic worship by composing a comprehensive repertory of choral music to be sung in the private chapels at Ingatestone and nearbyThorndon Hall, the other Petre family property. The compositions included two sets ofmotets calledGradualia (1605 and 1607) and a set of threeMass settings, such as theMass for Four Voices (1592–3), works first heard at Ingatestone that are now considered to be some of the finest examples ofTudor music.[4]
The Petre family sheltered a number of Catholic priests at Ingatestone, among them wasSt. John Payne, who was executed in 1582. The hall contains twopriest holes that were used for this purpose.
In the late 18th centuryRobert Petre, 9th Baron Petre moved thefamily seat to Thorndon Hall and rented Ingatestone Hall out to tenants.
In 1876 much of Thorndon Hall was destroyed by fire. DuringWorld War I,Lionel Petre, 16th Baron Petre was killed in action in 1915 and his widow, Lady Rasch, decided to move back to Ingatestone.
During theSecond World War, the house was let toWanstead High School. In the 1950s,Essex County Council used the north wing to house theEssex Record Office and mounted annual exhibitions there until the late 1970s.[5]
In 1952 the hall became grade I listed and the gatehouse grade II* listed, while several of the outhouses became Grade II listed.[6][7]
Ingatestone Hall houses the remainingPetre family picture collection.
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The building comprises three wings (north, east and south) around a central court. It was built by Sir William Petre 1539–1556 around a central courtyard inEnglish bond brick and includes features typical ofTudor, includingstepped gables and tall, ornatechimney pots.[8] Within the courtyard, a prominent feature is a tallcrenellatedturret containing anoctagonal staircase.[9]
In the late 18th centuryRobert Petre, 9th Baron Petre moved back to the other family property, Thorndon Hall, which was being rebuilt in thePalladian style by the architectJames Paine. At around this time, Ingatestone Hall underwent significant alterations and was converted into smaller rented apartments. The west wing, which contained the Great Hall, was demolished, opening the enclosed courtyard out into the U-shaped building that is seen today, and the north wing was extended and the outer court buildings were rebuilt, including an entrance arch topped with a one-handed clock. This clock turret, engraved with the motto"Sans dieu rien" ("without God, nothing") is thought to have been the work of Paine.[5][8]
The Long Gallery in the east range of the house was the main area of the house. It adjoins the remains of the former family chapel, which was pulled down and rebuilt in 1860.[8] The twopriest holes within the building, used during the 16th and 17th centuries to conceal Catholic clergy, are located in the east wing in a void under the turret, and in the south wing behind a chimney stack in the old study.[6]
In the 20th century, when Lady Rasch, widow of the 16th Baron Petre, moved the family back to Ingatestone Hall, she began a major project to restore Ingatestone Hall to its original Tudor appearance. The works, overseen by the architect, W.T. Wood, included replacing alterations to the building with reproductions of Tudor period features, notably the re-instatement ofmullioned windows on the west side of the building on the ground floor. The initial phase of project was completed in 1922.[5]
Mary Elizabeth Braddon's 1862 novelLady Audley's Secret is partly set at Audley Court, which is based on Ingatestone Hall, inspired by a stay there.[10]
The exterior of hall was used as afilming location to representBleak House in the2005 television adaptation ofCharles Dickens' novel and also appeared in an episode of the TV seriesLovejoy.[11]
Ingatestone Hall.
