Clintons

Clintons is a fine early 15th-century timber-framed and plastered hall-house with two storeys, located at Bury Green, Little Hadham. The building comprises an eastern cross wing incorporating a two-storey square brick tower at its eastern end, possibly representing the private apartments of an earlier timber hall. The complex has steep old red tile gabled roofs.

The original hall was substantially altered in the 16th century, when a floor and eastern gable chimney were inserted. The cross wing was re-roofed to align with the hall roof, and a chimneystack was added to its eastern side in the later 17th century. The lower western bay of the hall and service rooms were demolished in the later 18th century, replaced by a two-storey L-shaped hipped-roofed north wing. A small single-storey extension of red brick with tile and hipped roof was added recently to the north end. A small gabled porch on the west side has plastered brickwork and a slate roof. The upper floors are generally plastered and panelled, with red brick below. Early 19th-century sash windows with 6/6 panes appear on the west front, while modern leaded oak windows have been inserted in older parts. A Sun Fire Mark (No. 543494) is displayed above the front door.

The upper two bays of the former open hall are divided by a heavy moulded tie beam with cusped traceried spandrel to a curved brace on the south side. A 4-centred arch with carved spandrels on the north side of the upper bay gave access to a former bay window lighting the upper end of the hall. Above, in the roof space, are moulded butt purlins and hollow chamfered wind braces belonging to a fine medieval roof. The wall plate opposite the bay window features an edge-halved scarf with over-squinted bridled butts. The 16th-century inserted floor in the hall contains intersecting moulded beams and is said to have moulded joists above a plaster ceiling. The plaster decoration matches that found in the cross wing and dated to 1665 at Lower Farm, Bury Green.

The two-storey cross wing is contemporary with the hall and features a first-floor external doorway on its south side with a 4-centred wooden head and carved spandrels, with a square-headed door below. A jowled post at the north-west corner indicates the old roof ran across this corner. The present late 17th-century roof construction employs butt purlins and morticed rafters. The early red brick two-storey tower has thick walls with a circular stair in the north-west corner. A fireplace occupies each floor, with moulded wooden lintels and relieving arches in the eastern half of the north wall; both fireplaces are served by a large external chimney. The upper chamber possesses a seven-faceted plaster ceiling on the original roof structure, now located in the roof space. This roof is a collar rafter single roof with braces to collars and ashlar pieces, but no longitudinal members. A moulded oak cornice survives on the south side. The exterior displays an axed brick plinth-offset, blocked window openings in the south wall, and black-brick diaper decoration on the east gable end. A large Latin cross with stepped base appears in the upper part of this decoration, positioned above windows on the right.

Clintons was the manor house of the manor of Clintons, held of the Bishop of Ely. It was held by Henry Clynton in 1396, passed into the king's hand by 1407/8 when he granted it to John Rassh for life, and was again granted by the king in 1439 and 1462. The fine hall and cross wing were presumably constructed while the manor was in the gift of Henry VI, with the brick wing likely built by Henry Clynton or his ecclesiastical superior. The building stands at the centre of a group of historical buildings at this manorial site.