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[email protected] Some Stately Homes of North-west Essex ©Bruce Munro Reprinted (with minor alterations) from: Saffron Walden Historical Journal Nos 14, 15, 17 (Autumn 2007, Spring 2008, Spring 2009) Until the beginning of the 20th century, throughout rural England, great landed estates supported fine country houses - ‘the stately homes of England’. North-west Essex was no exception; sale particulars of a local estate announce ‘a noble residence … in the midst of a neighbourhood abounding with the seats of noblemen and gentry’. Towards the end of the 19th century, the great agricultural depression led to the break-up and sale of many of these properties. During the early part of the 20th century, tenant farmers often bought their holdings, farms with homesteads, cottages and land, for as little as £3.50 per acre. Today bare farmland, excluding house and buildings, costs £3,500 per acre! Horham Hall ‘Stately Homes of NW Essex’ – Saffron Walden Historical Journal Nos 14, 15, 17 (2007-9) Horham Hall, in a secluded situation about two miles from Thaxted (off the Elsenham road) is one of the finest pre-Reformation brick houses in Essex.