Description

WARE TOWN

TL3514SE HIGH STREET
829-1/9/121 (South side)
14/03/74 Nos.73 AND 75

GV II

Former inn range, now commercial premises, with bank on ground
floor to right of carriageway. C15, altered C17 and refronted
C19, banking hall created by opening out ground floor 1972-73.
Colourwashed stucco, Welsh slated roof.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. Eaves cornice, 4 first floor flush set
sash windows, with glazing bars, two 12 pane at left, two 16
pane at right. Ground floor has a late C19 shopfront at left
of carriageway. Plastered stallriser, moulded cill, moulded
glazing bars, and arcaded heads, converted to a single display
window by the removal of the central bar. Glazed entrance door
at left. Fascia carried on projecting corbel bracket at left,
and covers bressumer of jetty. Moulded base below fascia, and
projecting moulded cornice above. Carriageway left of centre.
Mid 1970s front to banking hall at right. Early C19 2-storey
brick outshoots with slated roofs, red brick coach house and
stables, c1890, behind.
INTERIOR: internal reconstruction of No.75, 1972-73, revealed
elaborate roll-moulded beams in-situ in ground floor ceiling
(now covered by modern suspended ceiling). A C15 moulded
bracket carrying the first floor jetty supported on a
half-octagonal post with moulded cap, was revealed in the
right hand party wall, and is displayed in a glazed case in
the banking hall, together with a panel of C17 pargeting
decorated with a rope twist or guilloche. The front wall was
found to contain close studding with brick nogging infilling,
and the moulded jambs and central mullions of a 2-light upper
window, originally with arched heads, was discovered. These
features have now been covered over, but were recorded by the
East Hertfordshire Archaeological Society.
HISTORICAL NOTE: the building was the site of The White Hart
Inn, first recorded in 1476, which housed the Great Bed in
1610. The land on which it stood was the property of The Guild
of Corpus Christi, and subsequently the Ware Charity Trustees,
who remain the ground landlords. Its use as an inn ceased
early C19, following which it was rebuilt, and the roof was
slated. The ground floor was used for shops, No.75 until the
Midland Bank obtained the lease of the building in 1972.
(Hunt EM: The History of Ware: Hertford: 1986-1946: 110-11,
130, 164; Perman D: 600 Yrs. of Charity.A Brief History of the
Ware Charity Trustees: Ware: 1991-: 5,8-9,11,13,14,21,27;
Perman D: Ware UD. List of buildings of special arch or
historic interest: 1993-: 34; Ware 25" to 1 Mile. Surveyed by
the Ordnance Survey Department: 1851-; The Victoria History of
the County of Hertford: London: 1912-: 396; Moodey GE: East
Hertfordshire Archaeological Society Newsletter: 32, 33:
Hertford: 1972-1973).

Listing NGR: TL3571514314

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26565017

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.

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