Stags End House

Stags End House is an early 19th-century country house, now used as offices. It stands on an ancient site, previously known as Tags End on the Tithe Map of 1838 and Gaddesden Bury in 1851. Later additions were made in the late 19th century, with interior alterations and a new staircase in 1907 designed by William Bonnar Hopkins for Frederick Braund, and a kitchen wing added in 1920 by the same architect.

The house is a two-storey, double-pile Neo-classical building facing east, with a two-storey rear wing. The front of the main building is stuccoed, while the rear wing is built of white brick. It has low-pitched, hipped slate roofs. The main range features a wide, oversailing eaves cornice with paired brackets to the soffit. The symmetrical front is nine windows wide, with additional, recessed end bays that are set back half the depth of the main house. There is a cornice at first-floor level and corner pilasters. The end elevations are panelled and without windows. A shallow, pedimented central projection, three bays wide, is fronted by a wide porch featuring four unfluted Greek Doric columns, a full entablature, and a blocking course. Recessed sash windows are present throughout, with taller windows on the ground floor, having moulded surrounds that rise from the plinth. Small panes fill the sashes, and also infill the ends of the porch. The rear wing has triple sash windows.

The interior includes an oak staircase and Ionic screens to the stair hall and landing. The site’s medieval name was Taggeshende.