ONGAR HUNDRED 



FYFIELD 



1406.2' The king then assigned the manor to Margery 

 widow of Stephen in dower, for life, with reversion to 

 Henry, 3rd Lord Scrope, son and heir of Stephen.^^ In 

 May 141 3 Margery granted the manor to Henry for 

 40 years at an annual rent, on condition that the estate 

 should revert to her if Henry should die within her life- 

 timers Henry was beheaded in 141 5 and the king then 

 took possession of the manor of Fyfield with the rest of 

 Henry's lands.^'' Margery immediately petitioned for 

 restitution of the manor as her right and in November 

 141 5 obtained it.^s She died in 1422.^* The Crown 

 then took possession of the manor the custody of which 

 was in February 1423 granted to Sir John de Langton 

 and John de Aske." In December 1423 John le Scrope, 

 brother and heir of Henry, 3rd Lord Scrope, recovered 

 the lands which his mother Margery had held in 

 dower.r' Later John recovered the barony. When 

 John, Lord Scrope, died in 1455 he held the manor of 

 Fyfield jointly with his wife Elizabeth who survived 

 him.2' She died in 1466 and the manor then passed to 

 her son Thomas, Lord Scrope, who died in 1475.3° In 

 1476 Elizabeth widow of Thomas was granted custody 

 of the manor during the minority of her son Thomas, 

 Lord Scrope.3> When Thomas, Lord Scrope, died in 

 1493 he was seised of Fyfield jointly with his wife 

 Elizabeth who survived him.^^ Elizabeth died in 1 5 17, 

 having outlived both her only child Alice, iuo jure 

 Baroness Scrope, and her grandchild Elizabeth.33 The 

 heir to the manor of Fyfield was then Eleanor, widow 

 of Ralph, Lord Scrope, who had settled the reversion 

 on her before his death in 1 5 1 5.2^ Eleanor died before 

 25 March 1531.35 The manor then passed to the 

 daughters of Elizabeth, sister and coheir of Geofirey, 

 loth Lord Scrope: Alice wife of Charles Dransfeld, 

 Elizabeth wife of Nicholas Strelley, Dorothy wife 

 of Lancelot Esshe, and Agnes wife of Marmaduke 

 Wyvill.3* In 1537-8 these sold the manor to Sir 

 Richard Rich, afterwards ist Baron Rich.3' After- 

 wards the manor followed the same descent as Paslow 

 Hall manor in High Ongar (q.v.) until the death of the 

 EarlofMornington in 1863.38 It then passed to Henry, . 

 1st Earl Cowley, a cousin of the Earl of Mornington." 

 After Lord Cowley's death in 1884 the manor was held 

 by his son William, Earl Cowley, who died in 1895.^" 

 By 1898 the manor had passed to Andrew Alfred 

 CoUyer Bristow of Beddington (Surr.) who kept it 

 until his death in 1906-12, after which it was held by 

 his trustees until after 1937.^' 



In 1842 Fyfield Hall farm consisted of 288 acres 

 which were in the occupation of Thomas Horner.^^ 

 At that time the farm was still owned by the Wellesley 

 family, lords of the manor of Fyfield.''3 By the end of 

 1865, however, the farm, or at least part of it, had be- 

 come separated from the manor. J. L. Newall who was 



at this time purchasing the Forest Hall estate (see High 

 Ongar), bought part of Fyfield Hall farm in 1865 and 

 the remainder in iij\.** Afterwards the farm de- 

 scended with Forest Hall until the estate was sold, in 

 several lots, in I9i9.'»5 At that time the farm consisted 

 of 224 acres which were let to G. and D. W. White at 

 a rent of £342 a year.''* 



Fyfield HalH' is a timber-framed house of various 

 dates. The plan is complex, having at the core part of 

 an aisled hall, possibly of the early 14th century. This 

 was of two approximately equal bays, the axis running 

 east and west. The south aisle is now missing. At the 

 east end, also on an east-west axis, is another medieval 

 structure, probably of later date than the original hall. 

 Parallel to the hall and built against its north aisle is a 

 two-story range, dating from about 1500. Three more 

 gabled wings have been added at different dates. One, 

 at the north-west corner of the house, contains the stair- 

 case and is probably of the i6th or early 17th century. 

 The others, at the south-west corner and across the east 

 end of the north range, date from the i8th century or 

 later. The early plan is remarkable for its use of the 

 east— west axis throughout instead of the more usual 

 cross-wings of medieval times. 



The timbers of the north aisle of the 14th-century 

 hall are mostly in position, although concealed by later 

 work.^' Between the bays stands an oak post from 

 which the curved braces forming the two arches of the 

 'nave arcade' spring. The lower part of this post, octa- 

 gonal on plan and about 1 5 in. in diameter, can be seen 

 in a cupboard on the ground floor. The capital has a 

 14th-century moulding and the base has long spur stops. 

 Above the level of the springing the post has a square 

 section and is carried up to support a massive plate run- 

 ning longitudinally at the junction of the 'nave' and 

 aisle roofs. At each end of the hall the projection of the 

 plate is over I ft. in length, suggesting that the original 

 14th-century building had overhanging gables. Most 

 of the original timbers of the 'nave' roof, which is of the 

 trussed rafter type, are in position, all heavily blackened 

 with smoke from an open hearth. An unusual feature is 

 the presence of straight wind-braces, pegged through 

 to each rafter and crossing at the top. The bracing 

 members of the central truss are missing but the position 

 of mortices and slots in the main members strongly sug- 

 gests that long straight braces crossed between the collar 

 and the apex of the roof and formed a scissor truss. 

 There are indications of smaller braces below the tie- 

 beam. In the north aisle the position of a window can 

 be determined by the presence of mortices for diagonal 

 muUions on the underside of the wall plate. The south 

 aisle has been destroyed, but the central post is still in 

 place. It has been cut back so that its mouldings and 

 octagonal shape are obliterated. 



" C136/78/1; 0137/56; C(Jm/>/«/<P«r- 

 age, xi, 561—4. 

 " C145/294; C139/4; Complete Peer- 



C 139/4; Cal. Closef 



C139/4; Cal. Close, 

 251; Complete Peerage, 



" CI45/294-; 

 1413-19,251. 



" C145/294; 

 1413-19, 229, 

 xi, 566. 



^5 Cal. Close, 141 3-19, 229, 251. 



** Complete Peerage, xi, 564. 



" Cal. FineR. 1422-30, 28. 



'« Cal. Fine R. 1422-30, 66-67. 



" Cal. Close, 1454-61, 94-95 ; Complete 

 Peerage, xi, 566—8. 



3" C140/21; C140/53; Complete Peer- 

 age, xi, 569. 



3" Cal. Pat. 1467-77, 582, 599; Com- 

 plete Peerage, xi, 569-70. 



32 Cal. Inq. p.m. Hen. VII, i, p. 396. 



33 C142/33/121; Complete Peerage, xi, 



57'- 

 3* C142/33/121; Complete Peerage, xl, 



571-2. 



35 Complete Peerage, xi, 572. 



36 E.R.O., D/DCw M102; y.C.H. 

 rorks. N.R. i, 234; Complete Peerage, xi, 

 572. Geoffrey, Lord Scrope, son of 

 Thomas, Lord Scrope (d. 1475) had suc- 

 ceeded his brother Ralph in 1515 and died 



unmarried in 1517- 



37 CP40/1098R0. i48;CP25(2)/i2/65 

 East. & Trin. 29 Hen. VIII; CP25(2)/ 

 12/66 Trin. 30 Hen. VIII; E.R.O., 



47 



D/DCw M102. 



38 E.R.O., D/DCw M115; Complete' 

 Peerage, ix, 241. 



3» Kelly's Dir. Essex (1870 f.); Complete 

 Peerage, iii, 480—1. 



*° Kelly's Dir. Essex (1878 f.). 



I' Kelly's Dir. Essex (1898 f.). 



« E.R.O., D/CT 148. 



« Ibid. 



« E.R.O., Sale Cat. A. 225. 



45 Ibid. ••' Ibid. 



■17 See p. 48. 



48 Many of the features described were 

 discovered during a survey made in 1954 

 under the auspices of the Royal Com- 

 mission on Historical Monuments and the 

 National Buildings Record. 



