IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Woodgrange Drive, SOUTHEND-ON-SEA, SS1 2SE

Dating back to the late 13th/early 14th century.

This is the obviously-Tudor extension to the hall.

Southchurch Hall, now a museum open at weekends only, is a mid-C14 manor house surrounded by a moat dug in the late C12. The half-timbered north side (seen here) was rebuilt in the mid-C16. See Image for further details.

Southchurch Hall, now a museum open at weekends only, is a mid-C14 manor house surrounded by a moat dug in the late C12. The half-timbered north side (seen here) was rebuilt in the mid-C16. See Image for further details.

Southchurch Hall, now a museum, stands in a delightful little park almost hidden by the surrounding terraced streets.

Southchurch Hall is a moated medieval manor house surrounded by earthworks. It comprises a late 13th or early 14th century timber framed building with a central hall open to the roof, which is to the left of the photo, and an extension on its west side dating from around 1560 to the right. Throughout the medieval period the Hall and its land was owned by Christ Church, Canterbury. In the early 1920s it was operating as a farm but was under serious threat of destruction from the rapid expansion of Southend. Fortunately, a group of individuals actively sought to preserve the threatened building and its earthworks. The Hall was eventually presented to Southend Borough Council by its then owners, the Dowsett family. It was extensively but sensitively restored in the late 1920s and opened to the public as a branch library in 1931 with the earthworks forming part of a public park. Following local government reorganisation in 1974, when libraries were placed under the control of Essex County Council, the Hall was converted to museum use, which it is used for today. It is also now a non-religious wedding ceremony venue.

This is the rear of the manor house with the chimney on the left being the chimney on the right in Image

Southchurch Hall, now a museum open at weekends only, is a mid-C14 manor house surrounded by a moat dug in the late C12. The moat can be seen here in its suburban setting. The houses in the background are in Southchurch Hall Close.

Southchurch Hall Gardens is a small park much of which is occupied by natural and man-made mini-lakes. The most notable feature of the park is Southchurch Hall, a C13 manor house and now a museum. Its early medieval moat is marked by the grassy bank that runs parallel to the houses in Southchurch Hall Close.