Wallfields

Wallfields is a house built around 1810, with late 19th-century alterations and an extension added in 1965. It was constructed for Thomas Nicholson and features gault brick with shallow-pitched slated roofs, a bracketed eaves cornice, and a central stack.

The exterior has two storeys, a three-bay central block, a two-storey west wing, and a two-bay east wing added in 1965. The central block contains two ground-floor and three first-floor sash windows with glazing bars, all set under flat gault brick arches. A wooden porch with simplified baseless Tuscan Doric columns and matching antae, along with a modillion cornice, leads to a part-glazed door from around 1900. A whitened plaster plat-band runs along the first floor. The west wing features a three-sided mid-19th-century canted bay window and two first-floor sashes, while the east wing replicates the details of the 19th-century house.

Inside, there is a central three-bay vaulted corridor with archivolts supported by brackets and squint fan vault terminations at the inner arch. The room to the east has an original fireplace, with two flanking arches pierced through and a shallow relief reeded cornice. The room to the west has a cornice, and another room further west showcases a 1840 interior with a later 19th-century wooden fireplace featuring 'Neo-Grecian' details. The impressive rear stair hall has a dogleg stair with an 'S' curve plan, cantilevered stone risers, and cast-iron balusters in alternating simple rectangular sections and flattened vases with rosettes, topped with a mahogany rail.

The landing and corridor leading to the central first-floor window share a delicate anthemion frieze cornice, with one axial and one right-hand arch on brackets leading to the corridors. The room to the west has a reeded architrave fireplace and a flattened relief cornice with paterae. Throughout the house, there are shutter boxes and moulded architrave surrounds to the windows, as well as four-panel raised and fielded doors.

Historically, Wallfields served as the offices for the former Hertford Rural District Council before being taken over by the newly established East Hertfordshire District Council in 1974. The large extensions to the west are not of special interest.