Description

HERTFORD

TL3212SW WEST STREET
817-1/19/251 (North side)
12/04/73 Nos.20 AND 22

GV II

Hall house, now subdivided into 2 properties. Late C15,
altered C18, extended into rear outshuts C19 and C20.
Timber-framed, plastered first floor with ground floor
underbuilt in black-painted brick. Old tile roof (replaced
with clay tiles over No.22 at left (west)), gabled roof over
rear outshut of No.20, pyramidal hipped roof over No.22, with
C20 pantiled roof over single storey outshut beyond.
Yellow-grey brick chimneystacks, that to No.22 well forward of
roof ridge, and has red brick cover section.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, 3 bay Wealden pattern hall house, with
central 1 bay hall, left (west) end of building jettied. First
floor has 3 nearly flush-set 9-pane sash windows with
architrave surrounds. Ground floor has two 12-pane sashes, and
doorway to No.20 to right, with C20 3-panel door and
plain-glazed 2-light fanlight, between consoles supporting
moulded cornice hood. Carriageway with garage doors at right.
Door to No.22 on left flank elevation alongside exposed
studwork beneath jetty, with brickwork of external
chimneybreast at right.
INTERIOR: No.20 contains the former hall bay, with inserted
C17 floor above level of plate to upper floor of west wing and
C17/18 infill studding below; C20 close string winder stair on
rear wall, and opened out inglenook fireplace on right, with
timber bressumer. At left C18 cupboard with panelled doors and
butterfly hinges, with arched architrave surround and
projecting keyblock. First floor has cambered tie beam visible
in front right-hand (west) bedroom. Left-hand bedroom floored
as a chamber within the hall. Wall plate and braces supporting
'flying eaves' of 1 bay Wealden Hall visible inside front
wall.
No.22 occupies the left-hand (west) wing. The ground floor
front room has exposed heavy wide spaced studs, a C18 corner
cupboard with shouldered architraves and a segmental head, and
wood cornice. The sash window in the front wall is a post 1989
insertion. The first-floor front bedroom has exposed studding,
and a blocked C15 diamond-mullioned 3-light unglazed wooden
window immediately to the right of the late C18 sash. C18
cellar with red brick floor and walls.
Roof: The attic of No.20 occupies the east bay of the roof and
is approached by a C17 winder stair. Crown post roof, ceiled

at collar level with mortice for longitudinal bracing of crown
post. C17 studwork in front of inserted brick chimneystack
which disrupts collar purlin. Remainder of crown post
structure in situ. Square unmoulded posts with fore and aft
bracing of collar purlin, intensely smoke-blackened above
former hall. Scarf joint in collar purlin above. Crown post
which sits above wall plate of partition of west cross wing.
There are vertical studs which are blackened only on the hall
side and clean elsewhere indicating a lath and plaster infill,
now removed. Ceiling lower over first floor of No.22 in west
end bay. Rafters halved and pegged.
HISTORICAL NOTE: this house is a comparatively late and simple
vernacular version of the classic Wealden House, with a single
bay hall, and entry disrupted by the inserted C17 chimney.
From the undisturbed existence of the crown post and brace at
the east end, behind the attic of No.20 it appears that the
house was only jettied at the west end.
(East Herts Archaeological Society Newsletter: Hertford:
1949-1962; Forrester H: Timber-framed buildings in Hertford
and Ware: Hitchin: 1964-: 19; Smith JT: English Houses
1200-1800: The Hertfordshire Evidence: London: 1992-: 148).

Listing NGR: TL3233512319

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26558974

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

• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)