Margaretting Road, Galleywood, Chelmsford, Essex, CM2

A hidden gem on Galleywood common in about 1.4 acres.

Description

The property was built in the early 19th century and sits on a plot of about 1.4 acres immediately adjoining Galleywood Common. The site is completely private, planted with many mature specimen trees and shrubs providing all-year colour and interest. It is approached through a walled entrance, over a long sweeping driveway, which leads to a turning circle in front of the house and outbuildings.

Central to the house is a fine reception hall with parquet flooring and containing an attractive staircase. From the hall is access into a cloakroom, kitchen and the reception rooms. Every room enjoys lovely garden vistas. At one end of the house is a dual-aspect living room, an extension to the original house, the property is believed to have been renovated and extended in 1972-1973. Adjacent is a cosy sitting room which includes a second staircase. An attractive separate dining room includes a fireplace and exposed trusses. Occupying the west wing is a large kitchen/breakfast room, with built-in pantry and access to a cellar. Adjacent is a utility room with a door into the garden.

On the first floor is a lovely spacious landing which offers a wonderful view over the gardens. There are five bedrooms and a family bathroom as well as a shower room.

Outside
The grounds extend to about 1.4 acres. A discreet drive passes through a redbrick walled frontage, winding through the gardens to a circular drive in front of the house and outbuildings. The gardens have been created over the past 50 or so years during the ownership of the current family. They were designed for all-year colour and interest, with an emphasis on privacy and blending the landscape with the adjoining common. There are private walkways and ‘garden rooms’ surrounding the house. Towards the front boundary, on the site of the former windmill is a delightful folly - a single room building overlooking the house and grounds. Opposite the house is a large detached barn containing three former stables and the coach house, providing extensive garaging/stores.

History
Mill House is set in grounds that originally housed the smock windmill together with outbuildings, machinery, stables, coach house or cart lodge, granary, orchard and gardens. At one stage it also included a henhouse, shed, turkey house, pig styes and paddocks. Originally a copyhold property, part of the manor of Great Baddow, it became a freehold property under a deed of enfranchisement of 19 December 1867. The property also originally included the adjacent mill pond on the other side of the road that was formerly part of the waste ground of the manor of Great Baddow.

Records show the property to have been in the occupation of a series of millers. Henry Sewell was admitted to the property on the surrender of John and Benjamin Brazier at the court of the manor of Great Baddow on 16 November 1825. He was succeeded by his son, Peter Sewell, in 1838 and subsequently by Samuel Sewell in 1863. Following Samuel’s death in 1885, his widow, Sarah Sewell sold the property to John Westbeech Kempster, who in 1981 leased it James Jarvis of Galleywood Common, miller and farmer, for £35 pa.


In 1896 Kempster sold the property to William Bodkin, a Doctor of Medicine, who lived in London Road in Chelmsford, for £700 and he continued to lease it to James Jarvis. The lease of 1898 includes covenants for the repair of the windmill in the event of fire or storm damage (referencing the hurricane of 1897) and the use of a steam engine in the event of the head of the windmill blowing down. William Bodkin died in 1906 and in 1914 his executors and trustees (Herbert Alfred Bodkin of The Cloisters, London Road, Chelmsford, medical practitioner, Jessie Mary Berryman, formerly Jessie Mary Bodkin, the wife of William John Berryman of 12 Lingard Street Barnsley, West Riding of Yorkshire, school master, Amy Maud Bodkin of Homerton College Cambridge, lecturer, and Leonard Gray of Chelmsford, gent) sold the property to Frederick Pluck of Pleasant View, Danbury, Essex, farmer, Percy James Debnam of Chelmsford, tobacconist, William Grose Webber of Chelmsford, jeweller, Philip William Stapleton of Chelmsford, sanitary engineer, and Frederick George Burrell of Chelmsford, solicitors clerk. In July 1918 they sold it to James Thomas Jarvis of Dukes Hall, Billericay, famer, who occupied the property.

The date of the mill’s construction is not known but at the beginning of the 19th century in response to the threat of Napoleonic invasion, fortifications were built on Galleywood Common. Newspaper archives record that a duel was fought with pistols next to the mill in 1806 between Lieutenant Torrens and Surgeon Fisher of the 6th Regiment of Foot, resulting in the death of Torrens the following day.

The mill was demolished in the 1920s but the original mill mound remains together with stables and cart lodge and the house itself.


Services
Mains water, electricity and drainage. Oil-fired central heating.

Location

A12 (junction 16): 1.2 miles, Great Baddow High School: 1.9 miles, Chelmsford railway station: 3.5 miles, King Edward VI Grammar School: 3.8 miles.

Mill House occupies a private situation on Galleywood Common, an area of approximately 175 acres of woodland and open common, immediately adjoining the grounds of the house. Galleywood Common was originally an ancient forest, recorded in the 1086 Doomsday survey. In more recent times, the common hosted the Chelmsford horse races, from 1759 to 1935. The area is a popular spot for walking, cycling and horse riding. Nearby amenities include The Horse and Groom pub located on the common, Galleywood Heritage Centre and tea rooms and St Michaels Church.

Nearby shopping facilities can be found at Galleywood and Great Baddow, with more comprehensive facilities in Chelmsford city. Chelmsford also has a mainline station to London’s Liverpool Street.


For the road commuter the A12 is within a short drive, running north and south, and connects with junction 28 of the M25 at Brentwood.

Square Footage: 3,158 sq ft


Acreage: 1.4 Acres

Directions

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