The Old Vicarage

The Old Vicarage, Church Street, Hertford

House, formerly the vicarage to All Saints Church on Queen's Road. The building dates from the 15th century, with substantial rebuilding in the 17th century and alterations continuing through the 18th and 19th centuries. It is timber-framed and stuccoed, with a machine tiled roof featuring a wave profile and cut bargeboards and fascias to the front. Red brick chimneys with tall orange clay pots crown the structure.

The plan is of a hall with cross wings, though only the south cross wing clearly dates from the 15th century; the remainder of the visible fabric is 17th and 18th century. The north cross wing employs a lobby entry plan.

The front elevation displays projecting gabled cross wings to left and right, each with two-storey mullion and transom bay windows containing leaded light glazing and lead-covered roofs with stuccoed spandrels. The recessed centre features a central three-light wood casement with divided glazing and projecting architrave surround with cut consoles below the sill ends. Ground floor windows comprise two-light openings to left and right, with a central doorway. The doorway contains a seven-panel door within moulded surrounds; the door incorporates a slim top panel bearing the date 1631 and is set within an early 18th-century architrave surround with a pediment supported on cut profiled consoles.

The left-hand (south) flank elevation has on the first floor two paired mid-19th-century flush-set sashes with divided glazing, left and right, and a central two-light casement. The ground floor contains a mid-19th-century conservatory to the left, a two-light casement to the right matching the sash above, and central twin leaf doors with three-quarter margin glazing and a panelled section below with a cornice hood raised on consoles. The right-hand (north) flank elevation features a two-storey canted bay with a mullion and transom window on the first floor displaying ovolo mouldings, now with plain and divided glazing. A modern wood casement with leaded glazing occupies the ground floor, with a projecting gable above.

Interior

The entrance hall spans two bays in width and features an arched fireplace on the south wall. A central beam displays chamfer, roll and ogee tongue stop detailing. Six-panel doors are set within broad architrave surrounds.

The south ground floor room extends across two bays and contains heavy section beams bearing remains of painted decoration in chevron and circle patterns. These beams were originally jettied to the east and retain mortices for brackets in the middle binder.

The dining room, positioned to the north of the hall, has a fireplace on its cross wall and a cyma pattern wood cornice. A cross beam features chamfer, roll and tongue stop moulding.

A stair hall was built to the west of the entrance hall in the early 18th century. The main staircase incorporates a Tuscan column newel, open string, columns on vase-turned balusters with bobbin turnings, and a moulded handrail. The dado features a rail matching the ramped profile of the stair rail. An early 18th-century quadrant bar landing window is present, with a bold coved cornice above. A north staircase beside the chimneystack has newels with ball finials, long columns on combined urn and bobbin balusters, and a moulded handrail.

The south cross wing roof contains a two-bay crown post structure. The ceiling above the tie beams in the rooms above the hall was raised around 1950. A purlin roof covers the centre and north cross wing. A cellar beneath the entrance hall has walls of red brick.

The building remained in the ownership of the church until 1760.