Woolmer'S Park With Attached Outbuildings And Wall

HERTINGFORDBURY WOOLMERS PARK TL 21 SE Letty Green 5/78 Woolmer's Park with attached 20.10.52 outbuildings and wall - II*

Country house. C18 origins. Rebuilt 1796-1802 by J Lewis for 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, shortly thereafter altered for Sir J. St. Aubyn. 1821-3 remodelled and extended by C.R. Cockerell for Sir Gore Ouseley. E wing destroyed 1947, subsequent alterations. Stuccoed brick. Hipped slate roofs. Neo-classical style. 2 storeys. 1:6:1 garden front: septastyle in antis Greek Doric colonnade central on ground floor, first floor balcony with ornamental ironwork, cornice to parapet. Outer full height canted bays with pediments, tall 15 pane recessed sashes throughout. Cross axial stacks. Left return is entrance front. 3 bays, central steps up to double doors, 2/3 glazed with reeded lintel and large semi-circular fanlight, all recessed with a distyle in antis Roman Doric porch. Central bay breaks forward with a first floor 12 pane sash, pediment. Tripartite sashes to outer bays, dummys to right, plat band between storeys. Right return has a ground floor 'Venetian' window with reeded mullions under a segmental arch. Two first floor sashes, cornice to parapet. Extending to rear left and angled inwards is a 4 bay 3 storey service block, 2 bays towards rear break forward. Sashes with blind windows on 2nd storey. 2 bays to rear have an entrance, first floor round-headed sash with a balconette. To rear of main block is a large tripartite stair window. Added to rear are further 1 and 2 storey blocks enclosing a service yard, all stuccoed with mixed casements and sashes. Interior: stone and slate paving through entrance lobby with an apsidal niche, reeded door surrounds, to triple groin-vaulted hall with fluted pilasters to open well stair with scrolled ironwork balustrade, moulded handrail. Drawing room has C18 fielded panelling, pilasters and overdoors, an C18 chimney- piece. Dining room, a cube with one apsidal and one recessed end, apsidal niches in corners, coving to plaster ceiling, an C18 sculpted marble chimneypiece, further early C19 detail throughout. Extending from laundry block to right and returned to rear is a red brick wall about 5m in height which originally formed two sides of stable yard, blocked openings with gauged brick segmental heads. The earlier house at Woolmer's Park is said to have been designed by I. Ware and occupied in 1760s by J. Collins, calico printer. Landscaped grounds. (Cussan's History of Hertfordshire, vol.II, p.105: VCH 1912: Pevsner 1977: H. Colvin, Biographical Dictionary of British Architects:1660-1840, 1978).

Listing NGR: TL2856510243