Description

TL 41SW
2/26

HUNSDON,
HARLOW ROAD (A414) (South Side),
Briggens House Hotel (formerly listed as Briggens) and attached Upper Terrace and Tank at W, along a drive, 300 metres S. of the Lodge

24.1.67

G.V. II

Country House, now an hotel. Circa 1719 by the mason Christopher Cass (1678-1734) (Gunnis (1968) 88) for Robert Chester, a director of South Sea Company: 2-bay N and S blocks and 2nd floor added for Thomas Blackmore probably c1770 (name and date on stable bell): N end and W side extensions in 1899: alterations 1908 for H C Gibbs (RCHM Typescript). Former country house on hilltop site facing W in a landscaped park probably designed by Bridgeman. Grey brick with stone dressings, hipped slate roof, Portland stone upper terrace on S end overlooking a tank of York stone. 3 storeys above basement, 7 windows front. 3-window central portion breaks forward. Stone bands at each floor level and blocking course to stone cornice. 2-window, 2 storeys and mansard side wings rebuilt in C19, project and are linked by a single storey stone screen with 6 casement windows flanking door with open pediment. 3-window block on S end with upper terrace in Portland stone attached facing S. Balustrade of low square piers with stone rails between supported on stone balls. E front has large full height 3-window central bow and basement storey clad in stone. Recessed sash windows generally. A drawing exists for a chimneypiece for Briggens by James Thornhill dated 1720 but the interior is completely C19. A large C18 country house with later additions, in a prominent position on a hilltop. Part of an immediate group of outbuildings and part of a wider landscape composition.
(VCH (1912) 325-6: Gibbs (1915) 23-6: Pevsner (1977) 343: HLHS (1979) 38: RCHM Typescript).

Listing NGR: TL4139211201

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Briggens House at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q26594622

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

• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)