Monument record DEM 002 - Denham Hall

Moat. Long, rectangular, wet, occupied. Adjoins church. Main causeway entrance on N side, with another on the W side. Traces of brick revetting along the edge of the N causeway and along the eastern half of the N edge of the moated island. At the NE corner, bonded into the brick revetting, there is a small one-cell brick structure with stone quoins. This is now roofless. In the N wall there is a stone window with ovolo mouldings of early 17th century date. The brickwork is laid in English bond and is also probably 17th century. This is probably a banqueting house or gazebo (S2). The main house has an early 19th century brick facade with a pedimented doorway. This conceals a timber-framed structure of early 16th century date, extended in the late 16th century, the late 17th century and provided with a rear wing in the early 19th century. A fragment of a jettied cross wing of early 16th century still survives. Late 16th century chimney with hexagonal flues (S3).
Manor was acquired by the Heigham family of Higham Hall in Gazeley in 1481, but was probably not used by them as a residence until 1548 when it was settled on Thomas Heigham on his marriage to Martha Jermyn, he died in 1557 and his widow, Martha, lived here until her death in 1593. S H A Hervey suggested that Thomas or Martha may have built the hall (S4). Martha was succeeded by her daughter, Susan, and her husband, Sir Edward Lewkenor. They both died in 1605. Their son, Sir Edward, died in 1618 aged 32. His funeral sermon mentions that `he reered up one building near his own hous, furnished it with a large table to the onely use and releafe of the poore, for at his great expences' (S4). This could be the banqueting house on the edge of the moat.
The last Edward Lewkenor died in 1634 aged 21, leaving an only daughter, Mary, who married Sir Horatio Townshend, 1st Viscount Townshend of Raynham in Norfolk in 1658 and inherited the property. The Hall probably became a farmhouse between 1658 and 1674, when Walter Ray is recorded as holding 11 hearths there.
Historical notes in parish file.
March 2001: Scheduled. Details in (S5).