Description

TL 31NW WARE RURAL WATERSPLACE
5/61
Old Farm Cottages
(No 1 and 2)at
Watersplace Farm
South of B1004
II

Manor house, now 2 houses. C16 or earlier probably for Sir
Thomas Bourchier (d. 1492) or Henry Bourchier, Earl of Essex (d.
1540). S part rebuilt in later C17. S and W fronts cased in brick
in mid C19. Timber frame plastered with a steep old red tile
roofs hipped to W but gabled to E. W front and S side cased in
yellow brickwork. 2-storeys but C17 central stair rises to
former attics. The N range (No 2) is a 2-bay crosswing probably
of a former open hall extending to S. It has one large room on
each floor, and was entered from the hall by the wide arched
doorway in the S wall of its E bay, now blocked by the staircase.
It has a collar-purlin roof and a central cruciform crown-post
with 4-way arched bracing. In the later C17 the hall was
demolished and a 2-storeys and attics, 2-unit, lobby-entry
central-chimney house (No 1) was built some 3 metres to the S of,
and parallel with, the cross-wing. A dog-leg stair with sinuous
splat balusters was built in the space between, approached by a
long entrance hall from the W, later occupied by a C19 parlour
(now in No 2). The W end of the old cross-wing roof was altered
to a hipped form and a central chimney was inserted in that wing.
The C17 work has heavy chamfered cross-beams, unjowled posts, a
butt-purl in roof with tennoned rafters and some smoke-blackened
rafters reused from the old hall. Symmetrical 3-window brick W
front with central 4-panel door half-glazed, recessed sash
windows with flat arches to ground floor and 2/2 panes.
Irregular S front with similar door between a canted bay window
on right with small panes, and sash window on left set in a
rectangular wall-recess probably intended for a small
conservatory. Plastered N front has a 4-light casement window to
the NE room. Internal features include: 2 pairs of scratch-
moulded, panelled, cupboard doors with lozenge motif carved on
upper panels, on 1st floor; unusual bolection moulded wood fire
surround with a keel mould made up of symmetrical cyma-curves
linked by a small roll; 2-panel doors and H-hinges; and heavy
curved knee-braces supporting the main cross-beam of the N range,
now in cupboards flanking the central chimney. The house appears
to represent the capital messuage called Waters Place of the
manor of Waters, held of the manor of Ware, first named in the
reign of Henry VII. Sir Thomas Bourchier died seised of it in
1492. His heir Henry, Earl of Essex, retained the house when he
alienated the manor of Waters in 1505 and it became known as a
separate manor or tenement of Watersplace (VCH (1912) 390-1).

Listing NGR: TL3850514367

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26381559

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

• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings