The Golden Parsonge and Garden Walls Attached on North-East

The Golden Parsonage and Garden Walls Attached on North-East

Country house and attached garden walls on the south side of Gaddesden Row in Great Gaddesden. The main house dates to 1705, as recorded on a former date inscribed on the windvane over the entrance, and was built for Thomas Halsey adjoining an older house to the south-east, which was pulled down around 1774. The building was altered around 1760 and again in the early 19th century. A north-west wing is dated 1874, marked with a terra cotta panel bearing a crest. The garden walls date to the 18th century or earlier.

The main house is constructed of very high quality red brickwork in header bond with gauged and moulded dressings. It forms a large two-storey square block with giant order grey brick pilasters of Roman Doric order clasping each corner, topped with a corner entablature and a moulded parapet that runs continuously around the building. A similar pilaster divides the middle of the six-window east elevation.

The south elevation is more elaborate, featuring five windows with triglyphs in the parapet over each window, stepped keystones, and brick aprons to the first-floor windows. The west front is plainer, with four windows and a projecting central brick porch remodelled around 1935, and lacks keystones to the windows. Low-pitched roofs are concealed by parapets on the main house; the 1874 block has a slate roof, and the north extensions have tiled roofs.

The windows are recessed tall segmental arches with sash windows of 9/9 or 6/6 panes. Those on the east front have corbelled sills, while those on the south front are cut down to ground level. A triple sash window on the east front replaces two original ground-floor windows.

The two-storey north-west wing has two windows to each floor copying the main house design, and features a half-octagonal ground-floor bay in the middle with a slate roof. A steep-roofed north extension has an arcaded loggia to the front and a tower with a blunt pyramidal roof.

The interior and staircase largely date in their present form to around 1935, when extensive alterations were undertaken by Waring and Gillows (before and after photographs are held in the National Monuments Record). However, the interior incorporates some adapted bolection moulded panelling and some panelled doors from around 1600 with cockspur hinges. A fireplace with green Wedgewood plaques inset was moved here from a demolished pavilion of Gaddesden Place, designed by James Wyatt. The dining room contains a white marble fire surround with Ionic pilasters, full entablature, and a centre block.

The roof structure is of great interest, demonstrating wide-span 18th-century timber engineering using 12-inch square oak or chestnut timbers, king-posts, queen-posts, and cross-bracing. One truss bears a painted inscription by the carpenter: 'Jo Grove Sept 19: 1766'. An inscription beside the entrance porch outside reads 'SL 1766'.

Extensive service buildings link to a north-east-facing arm of tall garden walls. Near the south end of these walls are blocked windows at two storey-levels with flat gauged arches and blocked doorways, suggesting they formed part of the demolished older house. The north part of the wall contains very tall, narrow, close-set blocked windows, apparently intended for an orangery. The walling between contains later, blocked, wider windows of 19th-century character, some of which intersect the older blocked windows.