Ingatestone Hall is a Grade I listed 16th-century manor house in Essex, England some 5 miles (8km) south west of Chelmsford. It was built by Sir William Petre, and his descendants live in the house to this day.
The building comprises three wings (north, east and south) around a central court. Originally there was also a west range. The Hall has two priest holes. Among the priests to have been at the hall was St. John Payne who was executed in 1582.
William Petre bought Ingatestone manor soon after the Dissolution of the Monasteries for some £850 and commissioned the building of the house. Queen Elizabeth I of England spent several nights there on her royal progress of 1561. In the late 18th century the west wing which contained the Great Hall was demolished and the house modernised and divided into rented apartments. Following WWI a long period of restoration returned the hall to its original Tudor appearance. The hall itself has been grade I listed and several of the outhouses listed Grade II
The hall represented the exterior of Bleak House in the 2005 television adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel and also appeared in an episode of the TV series Lovejoy.
The hall is open to the public on selected afternoons between Easter and September.
Famous quotes containing the word hall:
“Having children can smooth the relationship, too. Mother and daughter are now equals. That is hard to imagine, even harder to accept, for among other things, it means realizing that your own mother felt this way, too—unsure of herself, weak in the knees, terrified about what in the world to do with you. It means accepting that she was tired, inept, sometimes stupid; that she, too, sat in the dark at 2:00 A.M. with a child shrieking across the hall and no clue to the child’s trouble.”
—Anna Quindlen (20th century)