Little Manor

Little Manor is a house of early and later 17th-century origin with 19th-century alterations, located on Hertingfordbury Road in Hertford. The building comprises a timber-framed core with red and yellow brick construction, partly colour-washed, with a stuccoed and masonry-lined front. The roofing is original tile with a modillioned eaves cornice at the front and parapet gables with moulded corbel kneelers.

The front elevation displays first and ground floor windows: on the left and right are slightly recessed 19th-century 4-light wood casements with glazing bars, while the centre contains a small 2-light brick mullioned window with chamfered head jambs and sill, leaded glazing, and an exposed red brick surround with later stucco cut back. A recessed 6-panel door with 4 fielded panels and 2 glazed upper panels provides the main entry.

The rear elevation features a parapeted gable at the left with three attic windows having much-restored brick mullions. A large 19th-century sash window occupies the first floor, with a stub indicating the original brick mullion—the proportions suggest this originally had multiple lights. A Yorkshire sash window with 4 lights and 6 panes in each lights the ground floor. At the right are two large mid-19th-century windows with rubbed brick arches, segmental on the ground floor. The right-hand and rear gables display moulded coping bricks. A 17th-century red brick chimneystack with 6 clustered diagonally set red brick shafts and 6 long rimmed pots stands above a base with moulded coping against the rear south wall of the front range. A 19th-century yellow brick stack with 3 orange pots rises from the left flank wall of the front range. Two hipped attic casement dormers front the roof. The plan comprises a 3-bay central entry front range extended northwards by a half bay in the early 19th century; a rear outshut appears contemporary, with a central chimneystack between two rooms, creating an L-plan.

The interior retains significant period features. The entry is positioned against the stair, which features an early 19th-century elliptical vault—an unconventional arrangement for a lobby entry. The Dining Room to the right was originally an unheated parlour with exposed chamfered and tongue-stopped beams, and a fireplace with wood bressumer and curved recess, originally wider. A 2-panel door opens to the kitchen, which has a battened cellar door and a fireplace backing onto the large 17th-century chimneystack. An inserted grate of approximately 1840, cast-iron with fire basket and adjacent oven, serves this fireplace. The Drawing Room at the north end of the west range contains a cased beam indicating the line of the half-bay extension, a roughly chamfered longitudinal beam, and a rear window with reeded surround of approximately 1840. The cellar beneath the west range has brick and stone flagged floors.

The staircase is a straight flight with winders and a dado foot with 2 recessed panels. The first-floor landing features a chamfered beam with stop and lamb's tongue. The south bedroom contains an 18th-century 2-panel door with H-hinges, wide boarded flooring, and an Edwardian grate in its chimney. A timber post beside the closet door, with studwork above and bracing fragments, indicates possible 16th-century timber-framed origins. The large north bedroom has a cased beam marking the line of the original outer wall, a large 19th-century window with shutters, and a 2-panel door. The east range is now subdivided with reset 2-panel doors and an exposed beam with chamfer that dies out without proper tongues. Within a bathroom accessible through a closet from the front south bedroom is a large clunch stone arched fireplace with Tudor arch, served by the central chimneystack.

On the landing stands an 18th-century sash window with heavy quadrant bars and some crown glass reset horizontally to operate as a Yorkshire sash. Two attics above the west range are ceiled at collar level with exposed purlins. The north attic has an 18th-century 2-panel door and truncated purlins, which the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England) has interpreted as indicating an archaic timber chimney break, clearly demonstrating the northward extension. Seventeenth-century panelling was reset in the rebuilt 19th-century chimney alcove at the building's end, with exposed studwork on the landing. The rear attic bedroom over the east wing is accessed by ladder stair from the first floor, comprising 3 bays with exposed purlins and principal collars, a stack in the short bay, and restored 3-light brick-mullioned windows at the rear. The upper roof structure was not accessible for inspection.