Old Farm Cottages At Watersplace Farm South Of B1004

TL 31NW WARE RURAL WATERSPLACE 5/61 Old Farm Cottages (No 1 and 2)at Watersplace Farm South of B1004 II

Manor house, now 2 houses. C16 or earlier probably for Sir Thomas Bourchier (d. 1492) or Henry Bourchier, Earl of Essex (d. 1540). S part rebuilt in later C17. S and W fronts cased in brick in mid C19. Timber frame plastered with a steep old red tile roofs hipped to W but gabled to E. W front and S side cased in yellow brickwork. 2-storeys but C17 central stair rises to former attics. The N range (No 2) is a 2-bay crosswing probably of a former open hall extending to S. It has one large room on each floor, and was entered from the hall by the wide arched doorway in the S wall of its E bay, now blocked by the staircase. It has a collar-purlin roof and a central cruciform crown-post with 4-way arched bracing. In the later C17 the hall was demolished and a 2-storeys and attics, 2-unit, lobby-entry central-chimney house (No 1) was built some 3 metres to the S of, and parallel with, the cross-wing. A dog-leg stair with sinuous splat balusters was built in the space between, approached by a long entrance hall from the W, later occupied by a C19 parlour (now in No 2). The W end of the old cross-wing roof was altered to a hipped form and a central chimney was inserted in that wing. The C17 work has heavy chamfered cross-beams, unjowled posts, a butt-purl in roof with tennoned rafters and some smoke-blackened rafters reused from the old hall. Symmetrical 3-window brick W front with central 4-panel door half-glazed, recessed sash windows with flat arches to ground floor and 2/2 panes. Irregular S front with similar door between a canted bay window on right with small panes, and sash window on left set in a rectangular wall-recess probably intended for a small conservatory. Plastered N front has a 4-light casement window to the NE room. Internal features include: 2 pairs of scratch- moulded, panelled, cupboard doors with lozenge motif carved on upper panels, on 1st floor; unusual bolection moulded wood fire surround with a keel mould made up of symmetrical cyma-curves linked by a small roll; 2-panel doors and H-hinges; and heavy curved knee-braces supporting the main cross-beam of the N range, now in cupboards flanking the central chimney. The house appears to represent the capital messuage called Waters Place of the manor of Waters, held of the manor of Ware, first named in the reign of Henry VII. Sir Thomas Bourchier died seised of it in 1492. His heir Henry, Earl of Essex, retained the house when he alienated the manor of Waters in 1505 and it became known as a separate manor or tenement of Watersplace (VCH (1912) 390-1).

Listing NGR: TL3850514367