A medieval house behind a later frontage
Bocking Hall has a timber-framed core dating from the fifteenth century or later. The building was laid out on an H-plan, with a central range and projecting wings. Its roof is covered in pegtiles and hipped at the front.
The present red-brick frontage is a later remodelling. Its stone-capped parapet, dentilled band and pilastered corners frame a notably regular arrangement of sash windows. Four small-paned windows sit above the main entrance, with paired ground-floor windows on either side. The central door has panelled reveals and an open pediment. These features give the frontage a more formal appearance than the earlier building behind it.
The Bocking name
The name Bocking belongs to the older history of West Mersea's estates and landholding. The name's early documentary history should not be mistaken for the date of the present house: the standing timber frame is medieval rather than a surviving Domesday-period building.
Recorded occupants and farming
A will of 1557 names Robert Foxe of Bocking Hall, placing the house name in Tudor Mersea. In the twentieth century Allan Gray took over Bocking Hall Farm in 1940; an interview recorded in 1982 preserves his memories of farming and wartime work.
The official listing describes the later entrance in unusually precise terms: a doorway with panelled side reveals beneath a small open pediment, flanked by ground-floor sash windows set under straight brick arches. The present frontage therefore records a distinct phase of remodelling over the earlier timber frame.
Designation
Bocking Hall was listed Grade II on 27 January 1982, under National Heritage List entry 1225161. The listing identifies the fifteenth-century fabric as well as the later frontage; it does not imply that the private farmhouse is open to visitors.
Historic England: Bocking Hall ↗ · Mersea oral-history recordings ↗
Related history: The Hall, West Mersea.