164 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
After our President had expressed the thanks of the party to the
vicar for his most enjoyable account, leaves were taken and the visitors
journeyed through the fog to Eastbury House, Barking, which has, since
becoming the property of the National Trust, been extensively restored
and quite recently, in December last, converted into a museum by the
Barking Corporation.
At present, the building is filled with a loan collection of somewhat
incongruous character in a historic Tudor building, but one room is devoted
to objects of local interest, and here our conductor, Mr. Salmon, read a
description of the building to the assembled visitors. He said :—
Although the art of brickmaking never entirely died out in England
it was used to a negligible extent during the thousand years subsequent
to the withdrawal of the Roman garrisons from Britain. In the middle
of the 15th century, however, it once again became a popular building
material. This was particularly so in Essex where there were and are no
stone quarries, and where the only other local building materials were
the less refined media of flint and wood. During the Tudor period a
host of brick houses, large and small, were built in different parts of
Essex. Some of these we have recently visited, such as Horham Hall,
Broadoaks, Moyns, Layer Marney and Creeksea Place. Age has mellowed
these old brick buildings to a delightful hue and I think all will agree they
are amongst the most attractive buildings our County holds. With a fair
knowledge of the old buildings of other Counties I think I can safely say
that as regards Tudor brickwork, both ecclesiastical and secular, Essex
is head and shoulders above any other English county.
Not the least interesting of these brick houses is Eastbury. There is
no documentary evidence as to the exact date of its erection, but certain
features suggest an early Tudor date, circa A.D. 1520. To mention but one
feature suggesting an early date, there is no broad square staircase such as
one finds in such Elizabethan houses as Cobham Hall, Kent. The only
staircases at Eastbury are two newel stairways in turrets, the servants'
stair which still exists in the north-west corner of the courtyard and the
main stair in the north-east corner ; the latter has been destroyed, but
there remains the moulded brick handrail, a feature not found in the
servants' stair. A similar handrail is to be seen in Tattershall Castle,
Lincolnshire, which was built about 1440. The plan of Eastbury is that
common in the early 16th century, namely, a central block with wings
at either end projecting to the rear, thus forming half a square, a plan
which was a survival of the mediaeval custom of central hall and solar
and kitchen wings (e.g., Little Chesterford Manor), here the wings have
been connected by a brick wall, thus making a small courtyard. I should
like to draw your attention to the following interesting features : the
walled-in garden on the east side, a common feature in Tudor houses.
There are niches in the walls for statues. Note also the beautiful porch
and the chimney stacks of moulded and cut brick. Inside, the kitchen is
in the west wing. In the kitchen there is the usual large fireplace, also a
hatch connecting with the buttery. In the latter is a very pleasing little
niche in moulded brick. In one of the rooms on the first floor are the
fragments of some very interesting wall paintings, date about 1600 judging
from the painted semi-circular arches which contain land- and seascapes