26, 27 AND 28

This is a block of three houses located in Little Gaddesden. Number 27 dates from the early 19th century, while numbers 26 and 28 were built around 1850 for the Brownlow estate. The houses are constructed of red brick with stone mullioned windows, steep roofs covered in old red tiles, and openwork timber trusses in the gables of number 27 and on the east side of number 28. They form a deliberately picturesque group, positioned at the entrance to the estate, facing south, with an east wing extending north beside the road.

The houses are two storeys and arranged in an L-shaped block, with irregular extensions to the symmetrical number 27. Number 27 has a two-cell lobby-entry plan with two windows on each floor, a central gabled porch, and a large square central chimney topped by four tall octagonal shafts with moulded caps and bases. The windows are stone mullioned, with two lights on the first floor and three lights on the ground floor, all with lattice-leaded casements. The porch is timber framed and pargetted. The interior includes a cellar. Originally, number 27 served as a laundry house, with a drying green to the north.

Number 26, to the west, has lighter red brick and a matching tiled roof, but features red relieving arches over the stone mullioned windows. It includes a projecting gabled crosswing and diagonally set square shafts to the chimneys. Carved brackets spring from moulded corbels to support the gable ridge, purlins, and wallplates. Number 28 was formerly three houses and includes a gabled timber porch on the east side.