Description

GAMLINGAY MILL STREET
TL 2352 (East side)

11/78
No 1 (Havelock
22.11.67 House) (formerly
listed as Havelock
House, Mill Lane)

GV II*

House. 1688, refronted late C18 or early C19. Red brick, Flemish bond, tuck
pointed to front wall. Tiled roof with end stack, one to south rebuilt.
Gable end parapets on kneelers, now partly obscured at south end by paired
wood modillion eaves cornice returned partly round the gable end. Main family
range with domestic wing at the rear and contemporary but smaller range, now
extended, parallel to front range. This houses a service staircase. Two
storeys and attic. Two dormers. Symmetrical late C18 or early C19 facade of
five window range of twelve pane recessed hung sashes. Three brick plat band
between storeys. Ground floor has four similar windows under gauged brick
arches on either side of doorway. Late C18-early C19 door with six raised and
fielded and beaded panels. Rectangular fanlight with glazing bars and
original glazing. Above the doorway, reset in the plat band a cartouche of
moulded brick with scrolled border and mask to centre of upper edge are the
initials ANF. The rear elevation has original openings to the windows,
although the windows are later. South of the house and adjoining is a range
of office and coach-house. Circa 1840. Red brick and slate roof.
Carriageway with boarded doors to centre and office sash window with single
vertical glazing bar and door next to the house. Interior: the house
contains three plaster ceilings of 1688 attributed on the basis of style to
Henry Doogood, the London plasterer who was working on the Old Library,
Pembroke College, Cambridge and 5 Market Hill, Cambridge at about this period.
Ground floor room has central rectangular panel, bolection moulded with corner
roundels with foliate bosses and rectangular side panels. Concealed by wall
panel, on the north and east walls are six oval wall paintings representing a
church and spire, gallows, man in a top hat and flying birds. The staircase
is mainly C19, but the attic flight has twisted newels and balusters of late
C17, and there are some balusters of column-on-vase type which possibly
represent an intermediate remodelling. The landing is approached through a
screen with an elliptical arch and a central head mask and cartouches to the
imposts with the date 1688. The ceiling has a centre panel, square with bay
leaf ornament and moulded cornice. The first floor chamber has the most
elaborate ceiling. The centre represents the God Cupid in clouds attended by
flying birds with an oval garland of fruit and flowers in high relief. An
outer border has a frieze of foliage with animals including dogs, swine, deer
and at either end plasterers or masonic emblems. Each of the corners has a
component digit 1688 in a quadrant. There is a bolection moulded fireplace
surround and above a plaster overmantel of the same quality and date as the
ceiling. It has a-square centre panel with kneeling putto offering a basket
of fruit and flowers with a landscape. It seems likely that the house was
built and the plasterwork undertaken for Nicholas Apthorp who in the late C17
is known to have had a substantial landholding in Gamlingay.

RCHM: West Cambs mon (31)
Beard: Craftsmen and Interior Decoration 1660-1820
Pevsner: Buildings of England p 392
C Brown: Mss Notes (1985)

Listing NGR: TL2374752326

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17550528

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

• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey