THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
103
" In the Particulars of Sale Gaysham Hall is described as comprising a
good old farm house and extensive buildings and 284 acres 2 roods 2 poles,
let to lease to Mr. George Brown, a first class tenant at £700 per ann. It
was bought by Mr. J. H. Monilis, of Dover, who, however, sold it in 1918
to Mr. Rupert Brown, the present owner and occupier, and great nephew
of the above George Brown. Mr. George Brown commenced farming the
property in or about 1856, and cultivated its 300 acres for over 50 years,
except for 15 acres between Barkingside Church and the Cranbrook Road,
which were purchased from Mr. Monilis at £350 an acre by the Ilford
District Council for a recreation ground. Some 30 acres of the farm were
put on to the adjoining Dunspring Farm at the time of the 1918 sale, and
it has been further reduced at different times, a portion being bought for
a cemetery, with the result that it now consists of about 225 acres.
"The old mansion, which was of timber and very spacious, having
fallen into decay, was partly taken down early in the 19th century by
Mr. Wight, grandson of Gabriel, and since then considerable alterations
have taken place. Much of the old work was incorporated in the new.
To-day the house is of two storeys, with brick walls and tiled roofs. Vol.
2, p. 99, of the Royal Commission of Historical Monuments states that
it was built early in the 17th century, and has an 18th century wing on
the S.E side. Inside the building the entrance hall has an original
panelled door and two original doorways with stop-moulded frames. The
room at the west end, now a fine large dining room, the walls of which
from ceiling to floor are lined with original oak panelling, made bright
by being well polished, contains a beautiful fireplace flanked by coupled
and fluted pilasters supporting a panelled overmantel (mutilated) of
three bays, divided by fluted pilasters. Above this is a long room with
a curious segmental ceiling like a long arch, while at the opposite end of
the corridor, in the upper floor, another room has original panelling now
painted white, and an 'Adams' mantelpiece and hob grate.
" The barns north-east of the house are timber-framed and appear to
date from the beginning of the 18th century.
" In the Survey of 1617 Gabriel Wight is stated to be the owner, with
225 acres 1 rood and 8 poles of land. The house is there described as
'one capital messuage called Geshams Hall, with gardens, orchard, court
yard and outhouses of office thereto adjoining and belonging.'
" During the later years of its ownership by the Wight family, and since
it has had the following tenants :—Thomas Meredith, who died in 1786,
and after him Mr. Kinnill Oldaker (died 1808), both of whom have monu-
mental inscriptions in Barking churchyard. In 1848 it was in the occupa-
tion of Edward Campion, the next tenant being the before named George
Brown."
Leaving this interesting building, after the President had voiced the
thanks of the visitors to our hostess, the party made its way through the
fields to Clay Hall Farm, which proved to be of even more historical
importance, and which still presents many points of antiquarian interest.
Of these, pride of place must be given to the brick chapel (now debased to
a stable with a loft over), a picturesque building of mellowed red bricks
still retaining traces of its former entrance doorway and flanking ova
windows and other windows ; now all bricked up and replaced by more