Description

LITTLE GADDESDEN LITTLE GADDESDEN
SP 9913 (East side)

9/188 No. 29/30 (John of
14.5.52 Gaddesden's House)

GV II*

Court house, now a house. Circa 1500, altered to a house and extended in
late C17, restored 1898 and used as a village reading room, sold and
became a house c.1931, additions to front and N end of a C16 house from
Hawstead, Suffolk, and late C17 N wing from Wrestlingworth Manor, Beds,
1948-52 by Frank Jennings architect. 1½ storeys rear extension c.1978.
Timber frames on brick sills, exposed close studding on ground floor,
panelled radial pattern pargetting to 1st floor boldly jettied on W
front. Front wing higher red brick sill and exposed close-studding with
plastered panels. Steep old red tile roofs. 3-light flush casement
windows with iron opening lights and leaded glazing. A large 2-storeys
building facing W with 2-bays upper hall at S richly finished with bold
4ft jetty, and wide arched openings on S and W like original shop
windows. Stair on N possible original. N crosswing jettied at W gable
possibly contemporary, has higher floor levels and plainer treatment.
Gabled dormer in hipped front roof. Large chimney at junction of wings.
Front wing is former 2-bay open hall with inserted floor and large
internal red brick chimney from N Essex. 2 storeys N wing is painted
brick with modillioned eaves cornice and cross windows with leaded
glazing. The first-floor hall is unequalled in Herts for the profusion
and quality of its ornament (RCHM Typescript) and presumably served a
communal purpose such as a Marriage Feast House or a Court House. The
connection of the C14 physician John O'Gaddesden with the present
building must be spurious. Close studding, moulded arched wind braces,
moulded cambered tie-beams with carved knee braces to moulded jowled
posts. 2 intermediate trusses in clasped-purlin roof each with cambered
collars and solid arched braces with carved spandrels and stub tie-beams
with human heads (renewed by Lawrence Tanner in plaster at
restoration). Conversion to a house in late C17 involved infilling of
wide ground floor openings, inserting large brick stack at N with lobby
entrance from W. Raised and fielded panelled ground floor room made by
taking in part of a lean-to. 1st floor probably partitioned at central
truss. Brick N wing with 1st floor corbelled on 3 moulded courses with a
kitchen on ground floor. Transplanted C16 front wing has crown-post roof
with 4-way bracing and octagonal post with moulded cap and base, also
fine moulded joists and main beam in inserted floor. 4-centre arched
chamfered brick fireplace, and diamond mullioned windows. Bolection
moulded fire surround on 1st floor of N wing. (RCHM(1911)144 no.5:
Pevsner (1977)237: RCHM Typescript: Senar(1983)90-91).

Listing NGR: SP9929213401

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17871264

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)