The Blue House

The Blue House is a house dating from the 17th century or earlier, with alterations and roof raising in the early 18th century and a modern brick extension built around 1968. It is L-shaped and has a cellar beneath the north part of the front range. The front is timber-framed and plastered, with weatherboarded gables, a brick plinth, and an old red tile gabled roof. It has external gable chimneys; the east gable of the rear wing is weatherboarded, with the chimney off-centre to the north. A single-storey tiled lean-to is on the east end. Parts of the exterior walls are plastered, and one is weatherboarded.

The west front is symmetrical, with three windows over two storeys and attics. It has flush box sash windows with moulded architraves and drip mould. The first floor has 6/6 paned sashes; the ground floor has early 19th-century sashes with vertical margin lights. There are two hipped dormers with two-light casements. The front door is a 6-panel early 18th-century raised and fielded door, with the top two panels glazed, in a heavy frame with a moulded architrave and a heavy projecting panelled hood with a moulded cornice. There are vigorous moulded brackets. A wide-sash 6/6 paned window is on the rear wall of the front range. A Yorkshire sliding casement is on the first floor of the rear wing. There is a plank door with an old iron latch on the north side, and a plank door and 19th-century casement windows on the south side. A large cast iron pump is set within a tall, pedimented wooden casing outside the south door.

Internally, the house has an early 18th-century central lobby/stair plan, with a rear kitchen, disguising an earlier, more complex plan. The south end of the front range is divided from a larger room to the north, which is over the cellar. The east half of the rear wing was axially divided on both floors, with a stair in the southeast corner. A change of floor construction suggests the west bay of the two-bay rear wing may originally have been open to the roof. Features include a heavy chamfered bay post with swept jowl on the first floor supporting a cambered tie beam, and a 17th-century chamfered axial beam with hollow stop in the ground floor south room. A cross beam over the north room corresponds with a chamfered cross beam in the cellar under, indicating an axial division of the north end of the cellar. The early 18th-century staircase has turned balusters and moulded capping. Most doors are two-panelled and moulded, with iron hinges. This house is possibly the messuage known as The Blue Boar House alias Mansfields, mentioned in deeds of 1770 held at the Hertfordshire Records Office. It forms part of a group of historic buildings to the north.