Rochford Hall is a manor in Rochford

Rochford

Rochford is a small town in the Rochford district of Essex in the East of England. It is sited about 43 miles from Central London and approximately 21 miles from the Essex county town, Chelmsford...

, Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

, England. During the reign of King Henry VIII

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

, it belonged to Thomas Boleyn, then viscount Rochford, and it was the marital home of his daughter Mary Boleyn

Mary Boleyn

Mary Boleyn , was the sister of English queen consort Anne Boleyn and a member of the Boleyn family, which enjoyed considerable influence during the reign of King Henry VIII of England...

, sister of Queen Anne Boleyn, and Mary's second husband, William Stafford, Lord Chebsey. It is now privately owned.

History

The manor was originally built in 1216, which is the date carved into an old joist

Joist

A joist, in architecture and engineering, is one of the horizontal supporting members that run from wall to wall, wall to beam, or beam to beam to support a ceiling, roof, or floor. It may be made of wood, steel, or concrete. Typically, a beam is bigger than, and is thus distinguished from, a joist...

, and some of the arched doorways are original. In its 16th century form Rochford Hall comprised a sprawling turreted manor with a moat

Moat

A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...

 and great hall

Great hall

A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, nobleman's castle or a large manor house in the Middle Ages, and in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries. At that time the word great simply meant big, and had not acquired its modern connotations of excellence...

.

Anne Boleyn spent part of her childhood at Rochford Hall, which then belonged to her father Sir Thomas Boleyn as part of his rich inheritance from his mother Margaret Butler

Margaret Butler

Margaret Butler may refer to:* Lady Margaret Butler*Margaret Fitzgerald, Countess of Ormond, married name Butler...

. Sir Thomas was created Viscount Rochford

Viscount Rochford

Viscount Rochford may refer to:*Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, viscount Rochford and later earl of Wiltshire and Ormonde, d.1539*George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford, d.1536*Henry Carey, 1st Earl of Dover*John Carey, 2nd Earl of Dover*Pelham Carey...

 in 1525, and his title derived from his ownership of Rochford Hall. It was at Rochford where Anne allegedly held secret meetings with King Henry VIII. Following the second marriage of Anne's elder sister Mary to William Stafford in 1534, Rochford Hall was given to the couple as their principal residence.

There have been many additions and alterations to the manor over the centuries. The 20 feet (6.1 m) stained glass replica window in the main hall consists of three coats-of-arms of previous owners including the crest of Anne Boleyn.

The manor suffered some damage after a German bombing in 1940. Rochford Hall is now privately owned.