Bengeo Hall

Bengeo Hall is a small country house set within gardens and parkland on the east side of St Leonard's Road in Bengeo, Hertford. The house is graded II* on the heritage register.

The building dates from the late 17th century, refaced in the early 18th century, with the east front remodelled in the mid-18th century, late 18th-century bay windows and remodelled attics, and an early 19th-century west wing. The main structure is built in red brick laid in Flemish bond (with English bond in the attic storey of the east front), originally colourwashed cream in the early 19th century but now largely cleaned back to bare brick. The west wing is constructed in cream Hitch patent brickwork, manufactured in Ware by Caleb Hitch. The roofs are of old tile and Welsh slate.

The plan consists of a square main house with a central entry, central chimney stacks, and a double-depth arrangement of four principal rooms on each floor linked by closets and lobbies. The north elevation shows evidence of an earlier arrangement: an outline of a pedimented door, now infilled, suggests an original 3-bay lobby entry plan with a 3-bay principal east elevation.

The building presents two storeys and attics over a basement. The east front features two large late 18th-century 2-storey canted bay windows positioned left and right, each with a single 12-pane sash window in each face, taller on the ground floor, recessed beneath rubbed brick flat arches. The facade has a wood dentil frieze and moulded cornice with blocking course above. Semicircular rubbed brick arches frame the basement vents. Plat bands mark the first-floor level, whilst at second-floor level sit two projecting bands in English bond marking the base of the attic storey. The attic storey is entirely English bond with half-gabled stone-coped parapets at left and right and flat coping across the top. Three square 6-pane attic windows with rubbed yellow sashes are arranged across the attic, each set within a 15:6:9-pane frame with red rubbed brick flat arch.

At ground-floor level, the centre of the east facade has a 6-fielded panelled door below a semicircular fanlight with elaborate Adam-style traceried cast-iron grille. The surround features inner pilasters and a moulded impost band with panelled archivolt. The outer surround is formed by attached columns of stripped Tower of the Winds Greek Corinthian order, with an entablature decorated with swags and paterae frieze. Five sweeping stone steps with curved wrought-iron railings featuring ornamental foliated scrollwork approach the entrance.

The south elevation displays outer triple sashes of 4:12:4 panes, with the central sash retaining heavier mid-18th-century quadrant bars. All three windows have cambered heads. The ground floor has two 19th-century French windows at the left, those with sidelight casements.

The north elevation contains a late 18th-century sash at the left with blank upper panel beneath a segmental rubbed arch, a mid-18th-century sash at centre, and a late 18th-century projecting canted oriel bay with triple 12-pane sashes, moulded cornice and plaster spandrel below. The ground floor has a late 18th-century sash at the left with blank upper panel below a segmental double header arch, a now-infilled door at the centre, and a deeply recessed 6-panel door with upper 4 glazed panels. This door is recessed within panelled reveals with a broad surround set centrally beneath the oriel, with narrow 8-pane sash windows on either side.

A 2-storey west wing runs across the rear of the original house but has a separate gabled roof. It is built in cream Hitch brick with characteristic deep courses and a bond resembling rat-trap bond. Special moulded parapet bricks run at the gable ends and around a modified stepped Dutch gable in the centre of the west elevation. Above this sits a large 8-light mullion and transom window with moulded Hitch brick frames and cornice. Smaller 2- and 4-light windows are positioned left and right, with a moulded plat band marking the first-floor level. The north elevation of the wing contains a 12-pane sash window within a moulded stuccoed architrave surround, with a Hitch brick dripmould above.

The roofs comprise triple hipping behind the parapeted east front and visible on the west above a tall gabled and parapeted old tile roof spanning the west wing. Welsh slate forms the upper roof in the valleys between the tiled roofs at the front of the main house. Tall square Hitch brick chimneys sit below the ridge line at the centre of both the north and south flank elevations, each with projecting bands, oversailing caps, tall square pots with battered profile and projecting rims. A projecting chimneybreast at the south end of the west wing carries a tall Hitch brick chimney with moulded bands and oversailing cap.

The interior of the front entrance hall features a reeded cornice. The stair has an open string with long column balusters and a moulded handrail. The Drawing Room has a cornice of palm leaves, bobbin heads and flowered bands. The Dining Room is fitted with a single 19th-century cornice. Six-panel doors appear throughout the ground floor. A rear room retains a double cyma cornice of 18th-century date, with a glazed back door to the kitchen fitted with quadrant bars. First-floor bedrooms contain early 19th-century fire surrounds and cornices, with mid-18th-century windows featuring quadrant bars in closets alongside the chimneys. An early 19th-century stair with stick balusters leads to the attics. The roof structure was not accessible for inspection at the time of listing.