Chigwell Manor House (Convent of the Sacred Heart), Chigwell, Essex

Summary

An early C18 country house extended in phases in the C19, converted to a convent in 1896 with substantial additional structures joined to it throughout the C20.

Description

An early C18 country house extended in phases in the C19, converted to a convent in 1896 with substantial additional structures joined to it throughout the C20.

MATERIALS: the principal building materials are yellow London stock brick and some stucco. Roofs are generally flat though some pitched roofs are covered in slate.

PLAN: the Manor House is entered from the north with an entrance lobby giving on to principal reception rooms and a stair hall. Access to the upper storey of the Manor House is gained via a service stair in a smaller compartment to the east of the stair hall.

EXTERIOR: The north elevation of the Manor House is eight bays in width and three storeys high, with a brick plat band between each floor. The western three bays are set slightly back from the rest. Almost every window is a timber framed sash window with horns, one large pane over another; those on the second floor are smaller than the ground and first. The windows of the two eastern ground floor bays are combined in a projecting stucco bay. The adjacent bay at ground floor has a stucco arch within which is a stained glass window. Above that arch, over two storeys, is a canted oriel. The entrance is roughly central and combines two ground floor bays. The doorway is within a brick arch and flanked by narrow arched windows, all of which is surmounted by a large, broken-pediment, segmental hood on curving consoles. Directly above the hood stands a statue of the Virgin Mary beneath a pointed lead canopy. The western three bays have a larger window in the centre, with a diminishing level of stucco applied to it at each floor until only the keystone is emphasised in the upper storey.

The rear, south, elevation of the Manor House is four bays wide and is mostly glazed in uPVC. One first floor window is larger than the others and lights the stair case. At the eastern end a canted bay projects towards the chapel wall. The east elevation includes a second canted bay overlooking the garden.

INTERIOR: The circulation spaces of the Manor House contain significant amounts of original C18 and reproduction panelling that has been brush grained. Panelling survives too in the first floor front rooms, now subdivided. Blocked chimney breasts in the entrance hall and rooms above indicate the earlier plan form in which these served as reception rooms. Box cornicing follows the same pattern as the panelling: a combination of survival and reproduction work.

Notable interiors include the ground floor reception room to the west of the stair hall which contains two six-panel doors with elaborate surrounds. They are topped with segmental pediments decorated with carvings of shell, acanthus and flowers. Each has a painted crest with the legend 'Industria et labore' in a carved cartouche. The door panels are painted in imitation of inlay. One doorcase is cut at the right side to fit its present position, indicating that it has been moved from elsewhere. The same room also features a large green marble fire surround and a three-part mirrored overmantle; high skirting boards; and a heavily moulded cornice patterned with egg-and-dart and foliate motifs.

The reception room to the east of the entrance is a C19 creation and incorporates the former entrance bay that is now marked by a stained glass window dedicated in thanksgiving to Our Lady of Quito for her protection during the Second World War. The window contains monograms, symbols, and the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and an image of the Virgin Mary at the centre.

The stair and entrance halls are both floored (at the ground floor) with polychromatic encaustic tiles and panelled throughout. Dividing the two is a wooden screen with embossed and brilliant cut panes of glass within six arches containing a pair of double doors. The stair ascends to the first floor in two long and two short flights. At its bottom the curtail step ends in a bullnose at either end. The stair has an open string with three twist-turned balusters to each tread, and carved console tread ends. The toads-back handrail ramps over taller Corinthian newel posts at every landing with carved pendants at their base. Dado panelling mirrors the form of the handrail and Corinthian newel posts. The south wall of the stair hall contains a large stained glass window donated by family members in memory of Mother Rosalie, it shows the Virgin Mary, the monograms and Sacred Hearts of Jesus (left) and Mary (right) and symbols of the Passion and the Eucharist.

The first floor landing bathroom was completed in the 1920s and includes vitrolite bath panels and chrome fittings.

A pair of connected ground floor rooms in the C19 extension to the south west of the original house includes a number of six-panelled doors and timber sash windows. Each sash, without horns, has a single narrow, lambs-tongue, vertical glazing bar, and one window retains a vertically sliding shutter.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: The boundary wall to the north and east of the house, separating the inner grounds from the meadows beyond, is a continuation of the Grade II listed gates and railings.

History

Chigwell prospered in the Early Modern period. It was convenient for London but set firmly in the countryside. This prompted many wealthy households to establish polite country retreats there. In 1723 Sir Henry Hicks inherited Chigwell’s manorial rights, which he retained despite selling off the house and demesne lands of his father’s estate. In their place he bought land on the edge of Hainault Forest called ‘Bowling Green’ and built a new house there, later known as the Manor House. In Hicks’ lifetime the house was three storeys high, five bays wide, and two-rooms deep in a rectangular plan arranged around a central stair hall at ground and first floor. The handrail and balusters of the principal staircase suggest a date between 1720 and 1740 for the earliest parts of the building. The house was approached by an avenue from the High Road and through a screen of wrought iron gates which, with some modification, survive (Grade II, List entry 1111234).

The house changed hands in 1800 and underwent several significant extensions in the mid-C19. The 1863 Ordnance Survey map shows that by that date three bays were added to the north-west of the house. The entrance bay was moved at the same time, and projecting bays were added at the south and east of the house. A lodge and gate cottage had been constructed on the High Road and Turpins Lane entrances to the estate, and alongside the latter was a series of outbuildings and stables parallel to Turpins Lane.

In 1896 the estate was acquired for use as a convent by an Augustinian Order of Sisters, dedicated from 1903 to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and, from 1908, mother house of the Order. The Order had originated in Paris with a mission dedicated to the needs of the urban poor, especially children and unmarried mothers. Soon after the convent was established it was hoped that ‘rescued women’ would be received there, with laundries established to provide occupation for the women and income for the convent. Despite the construction of the laundries this plan was not put into effect. Instead an ‘ophthalmic home’ for visually impaired boys was also established there, becoming the first Catholic special school of its kind in England, and surviving today as St John’s Roman Catholic School, still providing for children with special educational needs.

The chapel, to the south east of the Manor House, was the first major addition. Constructed in 1910-11 to the designs of Leonard Stokes (1878-1931), the L-shaped plan provided a monastic choir for the Sisters and a school chapel for the boys. It was extended in around 1925 and reordered 1968-70. One further Edwardian building, the Domus Mariae, was constructed in the early years of the convent and operated originally as the Noviciate. It presently functions as a conference centre and has received numerous additions and alterations over the course of the C20.

A substantial extension to the south and west of the Manor House took place in 1928, providing communal facilities at the ground floor (refectory, kitchen, pantries and stores), and bedrooms above. By 1948 the same wing had been extended again in a matching style eight bays to the west, replacing part of the inner range of outbuildings and stables. In 1954 the Manor House was extended to the East with the addition of a six-bay block of offices and bedrooms for the governance of the Order, called the Generalate. A further extension to the historic core of the house was added around 1959 with the addition of offices for the Superior General, Mother Assistant and Secretary projecting in front and to the west of the C19 bays of the Manor House. Further extensions such as the sisters’ refectory and the ‘west wing’ were also added in the second half of the C20. The C20 extensions are not considered to be of special interest.

Reasons for Listing

The Manor House at Chigwell Convent, constructed in the early C18, extended in the C19 and converted to use as a convent in 1896, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Historic interest:
* as a polite C18 country house with C19 alterations;
* for its monastic history beginning in the last years of the C19 expansion of Roman Catholic religious houses;

Architectural interest:
* for the surviving core of Classically-informed C18 architecture and the later layers of eclectic Victorian alterations;
* for the high quality craftsmanship of its interior fittings, particularly the principal staircase;

Group value:
* with the Grade II Chapel (List entry 1470207);
* with the Grade II listed gates and railings (List entry 1111234).

External Links

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