A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



M.P., son and heir of W. W. Maitland, sold Loughton 

 Hall and 644 acres of land to the London County 

 Council for the building of the Debden housing estate, 

 which started soon after 1945. With a few short 

 intervals Loughton Hall had been the home of the lords 

 of the manor (including lessees under the Crown) since 

 the 1 6th century. 



In 185 1 W. W. Maitland owned some 1,120 acres 

 in Loughton. 3* The tithe on most of his demesne land 

 appears to have been commuted long before this.3^ 

 The estate was let out in 10 farms of which the largest 

 were Alderton farm (about 360 acres), Loughton 

 Bridge farm (about 300 acres), and Loughton Hall 

 farm (about 200 acres). Debden Hall farm, of 164 

 acres, no longer formed part of the estate. In the i8th 

 century it had passed into the possession of the Hamilton 

 family, one of whom, Archdeacon Hamilton, was 

 Rector of Loughton 1805-51.38 In 1851 the farm 

 was owned by John Williams.'' 



Between 1850 and 1930 the Maitland estate was 

 gradually reduced by sales for building purposes, 

 mainly in the neighbourhood of High Road.*" The 

 Revd. J. W. Maitland was prominent in the Epping 

 Forest inclosure controversy. If his plans had been 

 successful some 650 acres of the forest waste would 

 have become his freehold property as the result of 

 inclosure. In the event he received j^30,ooo for his 

 rights in the 992 acres of forest waste.^' 



The court rolls of the manor of Loughton are 

 described below (see Parish Government and Poor 

 Relief). 



The present Loughton Hall, which stands in the 

 middle of the Debden housing estate and is used as a 

 community centre, is a large red-brick mansion erected 

 by the Revd. J. W. Maitland in i878.'t2 It was built 

 on the site of an earlier house which was burnt down in 

 1836. The old house probably incorporated parts of 

 a timber manor house of the i6th century or earlier. 

 In 1602, during the tenancy of the first Sir Robert 

 Wroth, the Commissioners of the Duchy of Lancaster 

 made a report on the condition of the house.'*' This 

 indicates a typical medieval or 16th-century establish- 

 ment with many ancillary buildings including a 

 detached gatehouse. It was then in poor repair, which 

 suggests that it was already of considerable age. A 

 large proportion of the estimated cost of repair was for 

 carpentry and the quoted sum of ;^ioo specifically 

 excluded the value of 70 trees to be had from the 

 manor. This makes it clear that the house was of 

 timber and was to be restored in the same material. 



In 1612a new survey was made.'*^ The accommoda- 

 tion, apart from outbuildings, now included a hall, 

 buttery, kitchen, larder, bakehouse, pastryhouse, milk- 

 house, and wash-house, together with 'eight other 

 lodgings with faire lodginge and greate roomes over the 

 said roomes new built and redified at the chardgs of Sir 

 Robert Wroth, the now farmer thereof. The obliga- 



tion of entertaining royalty and the higher standard of 

 comfort demanded by the times had evidently induced 

 the second Sir Robert to increase the number and size 

 of the reception rooms. There is some evidence that 

 further improvements were put in hand when the 

 manor had at last been acquired by the Wroths in 

 161 3: in 1630 it was stated that Sir Robert Wroth 

 'about sixteene yeres past' had built some part of 

 Loughton Hall upon an old foundation.^' The date 

 on the front of the building at the time of the fire is 

 said to have been 1616.''* It seems possible that work 

 was in progress at Sir Robert's death in 16 14 and was 

 completed two years later. 



The description of a lodge in the forest, 'a faire 

 house built on a Hill', which occurs in Lady Wroth's 

 Urania, is thought to apply to Loughton Hall at 

 the time of her marriage.*' It includes a reference to 

 the Lady's Walk, an avenue of trees leading up to the 

 house from a bridge over the river. This was cut down 

 during the Napoleonic Wars when a high price could 

 be obtained for timber."** 



No record has been found of alterations to the house 

 between 161 6 and 1825, but it cannot be assumed that 

 none took place. The claim that parts of the interior, 

 including a stone staircase, were designed by Inigo 

 Jones should be taken with the usual reserve.*' 



After 1825, when the house became the property 

 of the Maitlands, over j^6,ooo is said to have been 

 spent on it. On 11 December 1836 the house was 

 burnt down. Contemporary newspaper reports stated 

 that 50 rooms were destroyed or damaged. s" There 

 had been two frontages, both 162 ft. long, and one at 

 least of these had the date 16 16 on the rainwater heads. 

 The style is said to have been Elizabethan, modernized 

 later, and the interior was adorned with Ionic and 

 Corinthian orders.'' 



A picture of the building shows a very curious two- 

 story front.'^ It appears to be of brick and is divided 

 into five bays by a pilaster treatment in stone or plaster. 

 Each pilaster consists of two tiers of coupled Doric 

 columns supporting detached entablature blocks. The 

 only horizontal members which are continuous across 

 the front are a string course at the upper cornice level 

 and the coping of the parapet. This parapet rises in 

 the centre to form a small curvihnear gable. Each 

 story has ten tall sash windows and the roof has gabled 

 dormers. A central doorway with a scrolled pediment 

 is surmounted by a niche. If this front dated from 1616 

 it is clear that the doors and windows were altered 

 later. In general the features are more consistent with 

 a date near the middle of the 17th century. 



Alderton Hall is a timber-framed and weather- 

 boarded building having two stories and attics. There 

 is a main block with east and west wings. The oldest 

 parts are the centre and the east wing, which date from 

 the late 1 6th or early 17th century. The west wing 

 was probably rebuilt early in the i8th century. 



34 E.R.O., D/CT 225 (Tithe Award). 



3' See Churches. 



3' Waller, Loughton, i, 98-99; ii, 53. 



3» E.R.O., D/CT 225. 



« Nat. Reg. Archives, Rep. on MSS. of 

 Cmdr. J. W. Maitland. 



*' See above. Preservation of Epping 

 Forest. 



*' Architect Eden Nesfield : N. Pevsner, 

 Buildings of Eng. Essex, 261. 



« Essex Naturalist, vii, 1 6. 



« Ibid. 18. 



«> Ibid. 21. 



46 Newspaper reports on' the fire, see 

 below. 



♦' E.A.T. N.s. viii, 173, quoting Urania 

 ii, 297-8. 



*' Ibid. 



*' Lewis's Topog. Diet. 1844. It has 

 been common practice to attribute any 

 mature classical work of the first half of 

 the 17th cent, to Inigo Jones. In this case 

 there might be some justification for the 

 claim because of the Wroth's connexion 

 with the Earl of Pembroke and with the 

 court of James I. Mary Wroth is known 



to have taken part in at least one court 

 masque (the Masque of Blacknesse) for 

 which Inigo Jones designed the costumes 

 at the outset of his career. 



5" Essex Naturalist, vii, 20, quotes accts. 

 from the Essex Standard and the Essex 

 Herald. 5i Ibid. 



" E.A.T. N.s. viii, 345: from a water- 

 colour then in the possession of Miss I. R. 

 Maitland. See plate facing p. 226. The 

 will of Miss Whitaker (pr. 1826) refers to 

 the 'Saloon*, gallery and 'King's Rooms' in 

 the hall: E.R.O., T/P 13 i. 



120 



