Thriplow Bury

Large house, dating from around 1700 and 1713, with earlier 17th-century origins; it underwent early 19th-century alterations dated 1832, and 1930 renovations and additions by H.C. Hughes. The building is constructed of red brick with lighter red brick dressings and gauged red brick window arches. It has a hipped roof covered in plain tiles. There are rebuilt stacks to the right of the centre, two large rectangular stacks, and an original side stack to the north-west with limestone offsets and a tall panelled shaft. The house has two storeys and attics, with a semi-basement. It is arranged in an L-shape, with an original 17th-century house enclosed and replaced by a five-bay building around 1700, extended to eight bays around 1930 and 1960, and a wing to the north-west around 1713. The south-east elevation features a main entrance with a 20th-century double-panelled door and rectangular fanlight with a flat, bracketed hood. There are four original ground floor windows with eighteen panes in each, and five similar first floor windows with oak frames and crown glass, all set within flat gauged brick arches. A bay window and garden door are also present, along with three first-floor hung sash windows. A plaque above the bay window displays an inscribed cartouche "RJY Reparavit 1930" decorated with dolphins, by Clare Shepherd. The building has a plinth, a brick band between floors, and a deep modillioned eaves cornice. Five 20th-century hipped dormer casement windows are also present. The north-west elevation has five bays of varying sizes, with three original first-floor windows and an early 19th-century round-arched staircase window. Two large ground floor hung sash windows and one original hung sash window complete the elevation. Five windows on the north-east elevation were blocked around 1832. The interior features reused 17th-century oak panelling and doors; a 17th-century kitchen hearth with a mantel beam; early 18th-century bolection moulded panels and chimney piece surrounds; a closed string staircase with twisted balusters rising to the attic floors; 18th-century cornices; and raised-and-fielded panelling of two heights on the first floor, complete in the south room. A late 18th-century Adam style fireplace is in the drawing room, flanked by fluted pilasters. A niche has been relocated from Castle Hill, Cambridge, to the entrance hall. Thriplow Bury was one of four manors held by the Bening family from 1681 to 1820, when it was inherited by Ambrose Hope Perkins around 1820.