Hadham Park Along Drive 280 Metres From Road

Hadham Park along Drive is a house that dates back to the 16th century, with a northern range from the early part of that century and a southern range added later in the 16th century, possibly as a separate building. This southern range was reconstructed and extended to the west in the 17th century to connect with the northern range. The house underwent alterations in the early 18th century and the 19th century.

It is an L-shaped farmhouse with two storeys, an attic, and a cellar, facing south. The structure features a timber frame that is plastered, with modern panelled pargetting on the south and west sides, and roughcast on the other sides. The roofs are steeply pitched with old red tiles and a bellcast eaves on the front range. The southern range has a three-unit plan, characterized by large curved braces supporting the cambered tie beam of the central truss, and heavy swept jowls on the posts.

In the 17th century, the building was extended by one bay to the west, likely to create a parlour for a separate household in the northern range, which includes an external gable chimney on the west side. The two central internal chimneys are from the 18th century, with 19th-century shafts above the roof. There is a small red brick link built in the 19th century at the angle between the two wings, which has one and two storeys.

The south front has four windows, including two square bay windows from the 19th century and a projecting porch under a hipped tiled roof. Modern wooden small paned casement windows have replaced the original sashes since 1967. There are two small gabled dormers with bargeboards and two-light wooden casements. An early 18th-century sash window remains on the ground floor of the west gable, featuring six-over-six panes with wide ovolo-moulded glazing bars. Above it, there is an early 19th-century cast iron lattice casement.

The northern range displays angular jowls on the posts and features a deep hollow and roll-moulded beam over the lateral west fireplace in the kitchen. In the roof space of the front range, there is a close-studded partition and a clasped purlin roof that reuses rafters with lap joints for the collars. The axial beam in the northern range has pyramid chamfer stops, while the 17th-century axial chamfered beams of the floors and ceilings in the southern range have ogee stops. The kitchen contains two early 18th-century two-panel doors with HL hinges.

Originally, this building served as the lodge to the Old Park of Hadham Hall to the west. It became one of three farmhouses when the park was broken up around 1686. By 1900, it was still referred to as Old Park Lodge Farm.