Chapel 30 metres south west of Goldings

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TL3014 817-1/5/363

HERTFORD NORTH ROAD (west side) Goldings Chapel 30 metres south west of Goldings

GV II Chapel, now used as sports hall. 1923, architect Walter Godfrey of Wratten and Godfrey. Red brick, English bond with blue diaper patterns on end elevations, limestone base and dressings, yellow sandstone windows, slated roof behind brick parapet with stone copings, and parapeted gables at ends, lower ends with Dutch profile, and octagonal turrets. Mixed free Gothic and Jacobean styles, as on the main house. Side elevations divided by buttresses into six bays, each with recessed three-light four-central arched windows with traceried cusped trefoil heads. Projecting porches with hipped and gabled roofs, stone mullioned windows, and semicircular arched doors.

INTERIOR: not inspected.

HISTORICAL NOTE: the architect Walter Godfrey (1881-1961) was articled to James Williams, successor to George Devey, who had designed the new Goldings mansion in 1870. In partnership with E Livingstone Wratten he carried on Devey's practice after William's death in 1905. Goldings was sold by Reginald Abel Smith, son of the builder of Goldings to Dr Barnados Homes in 1921, who opened it as the William Baker Technical School in 1922. The chapel was built to enable staff and pupils to worship without the walk into Hertford. The foundation stone was laid by Mrs Burnett Smith, Deputy Mayoress of Hertford on 28 June 1923. The property was sold to Herts County Council in 1969.

(Hertfordshire Countryside: Campbell D: Goldings: a curious Hertfordshire Mansion: 34-5, 38; Gray AS: Edwardian Architecture: London: 1985-: 196).

Listing NGR: TL3094214175