The History of Quendon Hall
Quendon has ‘an authentic history of more than 900 years going back to Edward the Confessor (1042-1066)’.
The Essex Doomsday Book records, that after the Conquest, Quendon was one of the 25 manors granted by William to his trusty steward, Eudo Dapifer, the builder of Colchester Castle. At that time the manor house would have lain near to the church in the village. At some unrecorded date in the Middle Ages, a deer park was created on the high ground above, and this approximates to the fenced area of parkland – the only medieval deer park in Essex to have survived still with its deer. During the following five centuries, the Norman families of de Mandeville and de Bohun, and later the Royal family, were in possession of the manor. Philip Morant relates that in 1553 it became the property of Thomas Newman, who pulled down the old manor house near the church and built a mansion in the deer park, which he named Newman Hall. Other owners of estates were doing likewise – the parks suggested “old wealth” and respectability as well as providing fine views and privacy.
One hundred years later, the 1645 estate map by H. Manning ‘being parcel of possessions of Samuel Gibbs, gent’ shows a sizeable house, with many chimneys. The house is surrounded by a wall enclosing a lawn to the front of the house and a formal garden of cruciform design to the rear. Outside the walled area are many outbuildings distinguishable by their red roofs and a bowling green situated to the east of the house.
The contrast between this map and the estate map of 1702 by Thomas Holmes (by which time Newman Hall had passed into the possession of John Turner) is striking. A turning circle fronts the house and fine avenues run to the north and south of the house. The development of the park is evident and indeed the map is inscribed ‘Newman Hall Park’. Morant tells us that Samuel Gibbs sold Newman Hall to Thomas Turner, who died in 1681 leaving the property to his son John. It was either ‘this gentleman or, his son who rebuilt Newman Hall and enclosed it in a park and it has since been named Quendon Hall.
Muilman, writing between 1769 and 1772, tells us that ‘in 1717 John Turner had sold the estate to John Maurice of Walthamstow, esq. of whose widow it was purchased by Joseph Cranmer, esq. of the Six Clerks office in Chancery and it belongs now to his son Henry Cranmer, esq.’ The 1777 Chapman & Andre map confirms this ownership with the inscription ‘Henry Cranmer, esq.’ against the estate and also shows the avenue of trees leading to the house fronted by a semi-circular turning area with the house, kitchen, garden and outbuildings surrounded by walls.