Hatfield Manor House

Hatfield Manor House

Manor house with 12th-century hall remodelled and extended in the 16th and 17th centuries, the whole remodelled in the 18th century. Roughcast ashlar and brick with Welsh slate roof. Now T-shaped with the 12th-century hall projecting by two bays to the west of a later north-south range, two and three storeys.

The south (entrance) front features a four-bay range to the right with plinth and French window to bay two beneath a 20th-century pantiled porch; other bays have sashes with glazing bars in ashlar surrounds with projecting sills. Eaves cornice to hipped roof with lateral stack on left and large ridge stack set back on right. The 12th-century hall-block is set back on left with exposed foundation and well-preserved chamfered plinth. On the left is a large four-pane casement with leaded lights in an 18th-century flat-arched surround, with a similar surround to a casement with glazing bars on the right; between the windows is an intact but infilled 12th-century window, and jambs of similar windows flank the right-hand casement. The first floor has a 12th-century floor band cut back to wall, two large sashes with glazing bars as over the porch, and cornice and hipped roof as adjacent bays with ridge stack.

The rear of the 12th-century range on right has a broad projection (formerly a lateral stack) and four ground-floor windows with ashlar surrounds. On the first floor, to left of the projection is a large sash with glazing bars to a stair window flanked on its left by remains of a 17th-century window cutting a 12th-century doorway; to right of the projection is a 16th-century first-floor doorway (now a window) with chamfered surround and triangular-headed lintel. The rear of the wing on left has two doorways and horizontally-sliding sashes on three floors.

The right return has four bays on left generally as the front, with no windows to ground-floor bays one and two and blind surrounds over; a blind rectangular window to the first floor centre has chamfered surround. Two bays set back on right have mostly blind surrounds with sash to ground-floor left. The left return shows the 12th-century hall-block with chamfered plinth stepping down at quoined door position (now a two-light double-chamfered mullioned window), and an intact 12th-century window on right with chamfered, quoined surround and cusped head. The first floor has a string course cut back with 18th-century blind window on left.

Interior features a stone-flagged entrance hall with round-arched arcade on Doric columns and resited 16th-century fireplace with Tudor-arched lintel. The room to the front right has a fine late 18th-century wooden fireplace with gryphons, bukrania and anthemion motifs, and contemporary iron firebasket with garlands; a chamfered ashlar doorway on left is now a display cupboard. The adjacent dining room has excellent late 17th-century panelling in four tiers with drops of carved fruit from an egg-and-dart enriched cornice and carved frieze with corniced chimneypiece featuring scrolls, carved rosettes, foliage and garlands of fruit.

The 12th-century range contains a corridor to the rear with substantial remains of doorway at west end. An adjacent room, formerly an Edwardian schoolroom, has fireplace, cupboards and ceiling beams of the period; the end wall has deep embrasure to the 12th-century window. Another adjacent room has exposed remains of two inner arches to the 12th-century windows seen from front. A wooden staircase in the rear angle of plan dates to circa 1800 with turned and fluted balusters, and plaster wall panels and ceiling feature. The first-floor corridor to rear of the 12th-century block has a fine, in situ, 16th-century fireplace with Tudor-arched lintel and herringbone-brick fireback. The room over the entrance hall shows exposed quoins of probably a 13th-century tower that adjoined the 12th-century block, and part of a door head that linked the two. Some early 19th-century fireplaces occupy other first-floor rooms. The roof space shows part of a 16th-century cornice over the 12th-century range and an 18th-century roof of hybrid construction.

The house is traditionally regarded as on the site of King Edwin of Northumbria's palace. Hatfield was granted to the Warenne family around 1070 and must have been built during their ownership prior to temporary seizure of the Warenne estates by Thomas of Lancaster in 1317. In 1336 Edward III's son, William of Hatfield, was born here; he died in infancy and is buried in York Minster. The house reverted to the Crown in 1347 and, as a hunting lodge, received visits from Edward Balliol (ex-King of Scotland); Elizabeth, Countess of Ulster, probably in company with John of Gaunt and Geoffrey Chaucer (then a page). Thought to have been visited by the Black Prince in 1360 and Edmund Langley, Earl of Cambridge and Duke of York in 1381. Used by the Duke of Norfolk: in 1536 during negotiations over the Rising of the North and referred to by John Leland around 1540, who noted that "the log or manor place is but meanly builded of tymbar". In 1628 granted by the Crown to Sir Cornelius Vermuyden, drainer of lands around Hatfield; sold by him in 1630 to Sir Arthur Ingran in whose family it remained for several generations.