Description

TL 4522 LITTLE HADHAM STORTFORD ROAD
(north side)

11/2 Gatehouse Range at
Hadham Hall
22.2.67 60 metres W of Hall

GV II*

Gatehouse range. Early C16 for the Capel family incorporating a
C15 brick building presumably built for the Baud family. 2
storeys red brick range facing S with central gateway to entrance
court. Incorporated as lower part of E half is a thick-walled
rectangular brick building with black brick diaper work on its S
face and an upright narrow window slot, with wide reveal on
inside, in its W wall, now visible in the staircase. Upper part
C16, without diaper, and steep pitched old red tile roof hipped
at E end and now extended over gateway which was probably carried
up as a tower. Large 4-centred brick arches in S and N walls, S
side more elaborate with diaperwork over and arch of 3 chamfered
orders with black headers alternate in outer arch ring and
chamfered plinth extending 2 metres each side. Wide staircase
with solid oak treads rises on E side of carriageway, entered by
a square headed chamfered doorway on the N. Small 4-centred
arched window on S lights space under stair. Garderobe shaft
with external arched cleaning hole at NW angle of gateway.
Carriageway spanned by wide chamfered and stopped beams similar
to those over lofty Ground floor of W half of range which is a
narrower and higher C16, thick walled brick building,
contemporary with the gateway, and with a spacious arched doorway
into the W side of the carriageway. Red brick walls with
diaperwork on S face which has 2 square headed windows with
chamfered brick surrounds on each floor, not above one another,
and square headed, double-width, doorway in centre. Heavy oak
frames, with diamond oak mullions surviving on lowerfloor and
mortices above, and outer rebate. Blocked central doorway on N
and 1 1st floor window with chamfered surround. Steep old red
tile roof with plastered gable at E and gable parapet with
tumbled brickwork on W. The long upper chambers over the 2
halves of the range have similar fine collar purlin, crown post
roofs. These are carefully finished with chamfered members and
use short 'crown posts' carried on arched-braced collar trusses
for intermediate bays and undecorated full crown posts at ends,
braced to collar purlin. At W end, a deeply chamfered and
stopped, cambered tie beam carries crown post. Rafters and
collars are lap-jointed and arched braces run through an oak
corbel at wall plate level. Massive cross beams, chamfered and
stopped have been inserted to carry a ceiling over the E half
emphasising the non-agricultural origin of this early brick
range, probably in use as lodgings or more regular domestic use
up to c.1668 when the Earls of Essex moved their seat to
Cassiobury and Hadham Hall became a farm. (RCHM (1911) 146: VCH
(1914) 49: Pevsner (1977) 240: RCHM Typescript).

Listing NGR: TL4517822766

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17553900

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

• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)