Description

HERTFORD

TL3212NE BULL PLAIN
817-1/17/17 (East side)
10/02/50 No.16
Beadle House
(Formerly Listed as:
BULL PLAIN
No.16
Dinsdale House)

GV II*

House, now offices. 1702-4, extended 1706, C19 alterations,
restored in 1974 by architects Thorne, Barton, Kirby and Nash.
Dark red brick, Flemish bond, with cherry red dressings,
hipped old tiled roof with lead-flat crown. Central
entry/staircase plan, extended by bay to right (south) shortly
after initial completion.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, attics and basement; 6 (originally 5) bay
facade. First floor has six 12-pane sash windows, recessed in
plain wooden reveals (2nd, 4th and 6th windows blank in 1973);
ground floor has 4 nearly flush-set 12-pane sashes with
moulded architraves, beneath red rubbed brick flat arches,
with projecting plat band above; central doorway, with 5 stone
steps, 3 recessed-panel door with moulded surrounds, surround
of panelled pilasters on stone plinth blocks, 6-light fanlight
with rectangular panes, fluted consoles and carved acanthus
leaf brackets supporting moulded cornice hood; plinth with
splayed brick offset and sunken front area with four 3-light
basement windows below segmental arches, modern reproduction
iron railings. Arched carriageway at right with double header
arch and modern iron gates.
Rear elevation has 2-light mullion and transom windows with
plain glazing, 2 similar windows on ground floor right of
carriageway, and early C19 12 paned bow sash window at right;
central projecting staircase bay, weatherboarded above
orange-red brick ground floor. Restored long 24-pane stair
window, with semicircular head and moulded cornice above.
Roof: with 4 box casement dormers to front, 3 to rear, with
modillioned eaves cornice to front, moulded cornice to rear,
rebuilt red brick chimneystack with band on 3 modern pots at
left (equivalent south stack demolished c1973).
INTERIOR: central through hall with part oak panelling of late
C17 pattern, possibly reset, fitted around bolection
architrave with front right room, elliptical arch with slim
pilasters leads to staircase hall. In the north-east corner is
a small panelled parlour with bold moulded cornice, and to the

right of the fireplace a semicircular niche with shelves,
arched head with flower painting, and carved cherub heads in
the spandrels. Staircase of dogleg plan, newel construction,
open string with tread nosings returned over cut profiled
brackets, barley-sugar twist columns on vase balusters, two
per tread and quadrupled at newels, moulded handrail, dado
with moulded rail.
First floor has full width front room, created c1831 when the
building housed the library of the Hertford Literary and
Scientific Institution. Plaster cavetto cornice, ceiling
border of modelled scrolls and vine leaves. The rear south
room has a simple coving and 1 of its mullion and transom
windows is peg jointed. The attics have exposed purlins butted
into principal rafters; in the south attics inclined hip
rafters across the outer ceiling planes indicate the position
of the original end of the building prior to 1706. A
subsidiary stair rises to a rooftop lantern.
Vaulted cellar below large rear right-hand (south) room, now
plastered; in north cellar weatherbeaten beam with tongued and
stopped chamfer may be reused from previous building on site.
HISTORICAL NOTE: Dimsdale House was built c1702, commenced by
Sarah Crouch, and in March 1704 a document of Release recorded
the shell of 'a new messuage or dwelling house, which is not
yet finished', among the Releasors being Richard Hoddy,
bricklayer. The house was acquired by the John Dimsdales,
elder and younger, the former Mayor of Hertford in 1706 and
1711, knighted 1725, died 1726, whose son Thomas was a
physician who discovered inoculation. In 1706, John Dimsdale
was granted an additional lease which enabled him to extend
the house southwards over the carriageway. In 1831 the
Literary and Scientific Institution took over the house. A
century later it had become shabby and used as a factory: in
1946 it was acquired by Enfield Highway CWS for redevelopment,
but saved by listing and a subsequent public inquiry, regarded
as a test case of the workings of the historic building
provisions of the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act; the
Minister placed the preservation order on the building. It
was, however subsequently included with the adjoining Bull
Plain buildings in a Comprehensive Development Area, and its
future was saved when the Hertford Civic Society successfully
persuaded the Borough Council to remove the listed building
from the CDA. It was purchased by Beadle Property Holdings
(which gave the new name to the building) and was restored
1973-4, receiving a European Architectural Heritage Year Award
in 1975.
(East Herts Archaeological Society Newsletter: Dimsdale House
Hertford: Vol.3, 6 & 39: Hertford: 1949-1953; Hertfordshire
Countryside: Forrester H: Hertford Homes in Queen Anne's Day:

Letchworth: 1946-1960: 104-107; The Buildings of England:
Pevsner N: Hertfordshire: Harmondsworth: 1977-: 190; Smith JT:
English Houses 1200-1800: The Hertfordshire Evidence: London:
1992-: 275; Smith JT: Hertfordshire Houses: Selective
Inventory: London: 1993-: 82-3; Page FM: History of Hertford:
Hertford: 1993-: 118-20; Journal of the Eastern Region RIBA:
Kirby D: 'Beadle House Hertford': 1974-: 29-32).

Listing NGR: TL3264712687

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17554161

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

• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
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  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
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  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)