The Cellar House , The Granary, The Tudor House And The Gantry House At Graces Maltings

The Cellar House, The Granary, The Tudor House, and The Gantry House form a group of houses and a former grain store, situated on Akeman Street in Tring. The core of the building dates to the early 16th century, originally an open hall house with a north crosswing. An upper floor was inserted into the hall in the early 17th century, and a chimney and service wing were added to the southeast angle during the same period. The north wing was remodelled in the late 17th century with two rooms on each floor. In the early 19th century, the front facade was faced in brick, and shallow bay windows were added. The hall chimney was cut back around 1863, and the whole complex was renovated and converted into dwellings in the 1980s.

The building is timber-framed, with red brick casing on the front, while the north house is plastered. The roof is steeply pitched and covered in old red tiles. The long, one-and-a-half-story range runs along the street, progressing westwards, with a two-story gabled crosswing at the northern end. The north half is roughcast with a black plinth, and the first floor of the crosswing has exposed timber framing. A two-story canted bay window is present on this wing, featuring sash windows and a tile-hung apron to the first floor. The frontage projects slightly, with rounded brickwork filling the corner. Gabled sash windows break through the eaves, arranged irregularly with two triple-sash windows and a narrower window where a door once stood. A lean-to hood shelters the door leading into a courtyard passage. The southern half of the building, with some eaves height, is in red brick, featuring four irregularly spaced casements with segmental arches – one replaced in the 1980s – and three swept dormers. A dormer on the left was added in the 1980s, and the dormer on the right was altered from a former upper door into what was a grain store.

A long two-story rear range extends eastwards from the crosswing, formerly housing a kiln and maltings, and has been significantly altered and converted. Exposed timber framing inside reveals that the north wing of this range is constructed in the same manner as the hall range. The hall features jowled posts, a box frame, and an open truss with a boldly cambered tie-beam, principal rafters, collar with arched braces springing from the tie-beam, and peg holes at the east for former arched braces from the wallpost to the tie-beam. A cruck truss adjacent to the south has slightly curved blades rising beyond a slightly cambered collar; the eastern blade has its bottom cut away and rests on a tie-beam. It was originally a closed truss with an upper face to the north, but inclined queen-post trusses were cut through for access to the southern parts. The hall comprises two unequal bays and represents an unusual structural arrangement. The west wing has a clasped-purlin roof of three bays and a large 16th-century ground-floor fireplace constructed of plastered brick, with a high three-centred arched head and mouldings down the jambs. The upper floor of the crosswing is characterized by curved tension braces and straight wind-braces.