Horham Hall – Court records recall that Queen Elizabeth I visited Horham Hall with her court in 1571 for 9 days and 1578 for 6 days. During her stay she went hunting in Henham Woods. Queen Elizabeth I rode across the fields and woods to this village whilst hunting.
John Norden’s 1594 map of Essex. Horham Hall is immediately to the right of Henham. It has some positional inaccuracies but the road from Thaxted to Elsenham would seem to be the present B1051.
The brown road that runs north through Thaxted is the current B 184. North of Thaxted, but before Howlett End, is a yellow minor road on the nearside of the B 184 which now goes westward to Yardley Hall. That yellow road runs southwest to cross the B 184 just south of Broadoaks (‘Broadokes’ on the Norden map) and continues southwest, passing very close to Horham Hall, crossing the Elsenham – Thaxted road (B 105) west of Broxted and passing through Molehill Green until it forks under the present Stansted Airport to go west to Bishop’s Stortford or east to Takeley. That yellow road doesn’t exist today other than in a few fragmented sections. Even allowing for the inaccuracies, the roads used by Elizabeth were sometimes quite different to those we know so well today.
From: THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE VOL. IV by E.K.CHAMBERS, OXFORD: AT THE CLARENDON PRESS M.CMXXIII Humphrey Milford Publisher to the University
Henham Park (Essex), iv. 87.A COURT CALENDAR, 1570- 1587 (itinerary of Queen Elizabeth’s Progress)
Gunnersbury, Hendon (Edward Herbert) Hatfield (Aug. 15-21), Knebworth (Rowland Lytton), Brent Pelham (Lord Morley Aug. 26), Saffron Walden, Audley End (Duke of Norfolk, Aug. 29-Sept. 3), Horham Hall in Thaxted (Sir John Cutts*, Sept. 5) with hunt in Henham Park, Lees (Lord Rich, Sept. 7, 8), Rookwood Hall in Reding Abbess (Wiston Browne), Mark Hall in Latton (James Altham, Sept. 13, 14 & 17), Stanstead Abbots (Edward Bashe, Sept. 20), Theobalds (Lord Burghley, Sept. 22), Hadley (Lady Stamford), Harrow (William Wightman).
Horham Hall, visited by Queen Elizabeth I and her court in 1571 (9 days) and 1578 (6 days). There is a good collection of Tudor and 18th Century portraits, oak furniture, tapestries and a very modern ghost – the owner’s Cavalier King Charles named ‘Charlie’ died in 1995 and is buried in the grounds – comes to the drawing room door and scratches noisily to get in!
* CUTTS, Sir John (1545-1615), builder of Horham Hall, Essex; Shenley Hall, Herts. and Childerley, Cambs.