The house
The rooms you will see
A Tudor house that is still a family home: mullioned windows, high chimneys, crow-step gables and oak panelled rooms, in ten acres of enclosed gardens.
Among the rooms that the visitor will see are:
- 01The Summer Parlour
- The former ballroom in which teas and light meals are served to visitors and where private dinners or receptions can be accommodated.
- 02The Stone Hall
- Oak-panelled, created by Lady Rasch to replace the former Great Hall, lost when the West wing was demolished.
- 03The Dining Room
- With its walls lined with oak-panelling and tapestries.
- 04The Old Kitchen
- With its cavernous open fireplace.
- 05“My Master's Lodging”
- The principal bedroom, with its four-poster bed.
- 06The Queen Anne Room
- In contrasting 18th century style with pine rather than oak panelling.
- 07The Gallery
- 29 metres long, lined with 40 portraits of successive generations of the Petre family and containing displays of memorabilia accumulated over the centuries.
- 08Priests' Hiding-Places
- Two secret priests' hiding-places concealed within the thickness of the walls.
The grounds
The orchards that almost entirely covered the grounds in Tudor times have disappeared but a few features from those days remain: the high boundary wall and the walled garden where summer al fresco picnics were enjoyed, the stew pond and the avenue of ancient lime trees that borders it and the cistern in the Old Orchard in which until very recently, spring water was collected to supply the house.
Further reading and links
Great Days Out UKIdeas for all the family.great-days-out.co.uk Visit EssexThe main portal for tourism and business travel in Essex.visitessex.com Historic Houses AssociationAn organisation that represents Historic Houses whether they are open to the public or not.historichouses.org Ingatestone and Fryerning Historical and Archaeological Societyingatestonehistorysociety.com Ingatestone and Fryerning Parish Councilingatestone-fryerningpc.gov.uk BBC Essexbbc.co.uk/news/england/essex Brentwood Councilbrentwood.gov.uk
Books
- The Catholic Church in Ingatestone by Stewart Foster (1982)
- Ingatestone and the Great Essex Road by E.E. Wilde (1913)
- Tudor Secretary: Sir William Petre at Court and Home by F.G. Emmison (1961)
- Tudor Food and Pastimes: Life at Ingatestone Hall by F.G. Emmison (1964)
- John Petre by A.C. Edwards (1975)
- The Ninth Lord Petre by Maude Petre (1928)
- The Catholic Families by Mark Bence-Jones (1992)
- The Scandal of the Season. A novel about the 7th Lord Petre by Sophie Gee (2007)
