23, Baldock Street

TL3514SE 829-1/9/28 08/05/50

WARE TOWN BALDOCK STREET (West side) No.23

GV II

House, later inn, house, and now offices. C16 and C17 refaced C18. Timber-framed, with masonry lined stucco facing. Old tiled roof with moulded eaves cornice. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, 3 sash windows with glazing bars, slightly set back with concealed boxes, on first floor; 3 sash windows with glazing bars, nearly flush-set, with exposed boxes and moulded architraves on ground floor. Entrance door to right between right hand pair of windows. 6 fielded panelled door, with glazed upper panels, in architrave surround with flat hood on cut brackets. At left is carriageway, with moulded surround and elliptical arch, with carved spandrels with foliage. Twin plank doors, with wicket door in right hand leaf. At rear is long outshoot, timber-framed, with plastered walls, and old tiled roof, 2 storeys with attics. Gabled jetty beneath attic, supported on cut consoles facing south. INTERIOR: moulded beams are found in the central ground floor room, and one C18 moulded coving to the left hand room. The inconsistent disposition of the mouldings indicates that the floor plan has been altered. The stair at the rear of the frontage block was not directly accessible from the yard as with most inns. The kitchen appears to have been in the west wing. Recorded as a house in 1622, and as The Black Swan Inn in 1654. (Edwards E and Perman D: Ware's Past In Pictures: Ware: 1991-: 119; Hunt EM: The History of Ware: Hertford: 1986-1946: 67, 97; Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England): An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Hertfordshire: London: 1910-: 230; Smith JT: Hertfordshire Houses. Selective Inventory: London: 1993-: 194; Ware 25" to 1 Mile. Surveyed by the Ordnance Survey Department: 1851-; The Victoria History of the County of Hertford : III: London: 1912-: 381; Forrester H: Timber Framed Buildings in Hertford and Ware: Hitchin: 1964-: 39).

Listing NGR: TL3557514468