Westbrook Hay School

Westbrook Hay School is a large country house, originally dating to the mid-18th century, with significant alterations and extensions made over several phases. It was possibly built upon older fabric, with a central pedimented top storey and flanking roofs added between 1800 and 1840. The house was substantially refronted and extended to both sides in the 1850s, giving it the appearance it has today. The building served as the seat of the Ryder family and was later used by the Royal Air Force during the Second World War before passing to the Hemel Hempstead New Town Commission. It became a school in 1963.

The house is constructed of red brick, largely stuccoed, with slate roofs. It is an irregular country house with a north-facing entrance front, garden fronts to the west and south, and service buildings attached to the east. The plan is two storeys with attics and basements. An early drawing from around 1800 depicts a seven-bay, two-storey brick house with a parapet and a three-bay projecting centre. A drawing from around 1840 indicates a three-storey pedimented centre and steeper roofs. The 1850s alterations included new reception rooms on the west side and a new facade, set 12 feet forward of the original north front and extending 70 feet in length, featuring a grand, stuccoed porch.

The north front, of two storeys and seven bays, has a plinth, a minor cornice, a dentil cornice, and a roof balustrade with dies. The second and sixth bays project, featuring panelled pilasters flanking the windows. A pilastered, cubic porch has three-quarter Ionic columns framing the entrance, which has half-glazed double doors; similar doors provide access to the hall. Recessed sash windows have moulded lugged surrounds to the ground floor and an entablature on trusses to the first floor. An armorial centrepiece sits on the parapet. The older front extends to the left, set back, and is constructed of red brick with gauged flat arches above windows. These windows have Egyptian-style architraves with lugs, and the upper floor has a band at sill level in stucco, displaying three receding planes of wall and two windows.

The west garden front has two storeys with a central, two-storey, three-window segmental bay projecting, one window to the left, and a narrow one-window wing to the right. A single-storey, three-window projecting bay is on the right-hand side, with a parapet and a triplet of windows above the central one, supported by an entablature on trusses. A glazed verandah with cast-iron columns and openwork brackets is at the rear. A Portland stone terrace has three steps with a central landing and three further steps, topped with a stone octagon table on a leaf-carved pedestal.

The south front features a central, two-storey segmental bay with three windows and a balustrade at the first floor. To the left is a triple sash window over a French window; to the right, a three-window projecting wing, which previously contained a conservatory now used as a dining room. A pump is attached to the end of this wing. A two-storey and attic stucco wing is on the right, with a pretty Gothic, nine-bay wooden cloister featuring trefoil spandrels to arched beams for posts. The central, western end has a higher bargeboarded gable. A formal terrace garden is to the west, and the remains of a flint grotto garden lie to the south.