Description

Lemsford
TL 21 SW HATFIELD MARFORD ROAD
(north side)

5/172 Brocket Hall

6.2.52

GV I

Large rectangular mansion built by James Paine for Sir Mathew
Lamb and his son Sir Penistone Lamb (later Lord Melbourne) c1760
to c1780. Piecemeal reconstruction of an older courtyard house,
the staircase filling the courtyard space. Red brick exteriors
with some stone dressings. Westmoreland slate roof. 3 storeys,
attic and basement. Mostly original glazing bar sash windows.
Gauged brick lintels. Continuous stone sill bands and moulded
cornice.

9-window entrance front on SW has 3-window slightly projecting
centre with raised pedimented attic. Stone Ionic doorcase with
three-quarter engaged columns, entablature and pediment. Dressed
stone surrounds to centre 1st floor window and to the central
ground and first floor windows of the flanking walls. Stone
armorial plaque in attic pediment. SW elevation has 1:3:1 window
centre, the middle part projecting slightly and having tall,
round-headed ground floor windows with three-quarter engaged
Ionic columns. Attic to whole centre. At either end are 3-
storey canted window bays. NE elevation is 3 storeys only.
ABCBA composition. The outer bays have ground and 1st floor
Venetian windows and 2nd floor therm windows. 3-storey canted
windows to intermediate bays. Centre bay has ground and 1st
floor relieving arches to single lights. NW service elevation
has plain 3-window projecting centre.

Interior has top-lit staircase hall, the gallery with honeysuckle
pattern railings and columns with spiral-fluted lower parts.
Alcoves either end with circular and oval saucer domes. Large
saloon with gilt coved ceiling. Paintings designed and begun by
John Hamilton Mortimer and completed by Wheatley. Library has
bookcases by Chippendale and Adam-style ceiling with inset panels
by Cipriani. The second Viscount Melbourne lived with his wife
Lady Caroline Ponsonby and died here in 1848. Viscount
Palmerston died here in 1865 (C.L. 4 and 18.7.25; Pevsner (1977).

Listing NGR: TL2140813036

External Links

• Historic England Listing

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

• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House