Ford House

Ford House, formerly known as Ford Cottage, is a house with probable origins in the 17th century. It was heightened, extended, and converted into two houses in the late 18th or 19th century, but is now a single residence. The building is two storeys tall, constructed of red brick, and has a square plan, facing south behind a high wall. It features parallel steep red tiled roofs with pierced and cusped bargeboards on twin gables at the south end.

The house has symmetrical, single-storey lean-to side extensions with fish scale slate roofs and a battlemented brick screen that includes a segmental arched doorway at the front, while the west doorway has been blocked. Two tall cruciform brick chimneys rise from the central valley of the roof. The layout reflects mirrored semi-detached house plans, with a large room to the south, a narrow rear kitchen to the north, and a stair lobby in between. There is a rear entrance in the side extension.

The front of the house is bisymmetrical, featuring one window on each floor of each house. The upper windows are two-light with square heads and projecting brick labels. A canted bay window has one large light flanked by three smaller lights, with timber casements and a rounded hipped tiled roof. On the right side, there is a flush panelled half-glazed door with glazing bars.

The main walls are constructed in older English bond brickwork up to the first floor, while the upper walls and recessed side extensions are in later Flemish bond brickwork. The bay windows are also later additions. The interiors are simple and largely unchanged, with the rear wall having one window on each floor for each house. Ground floor windows feature segmental arches and three-light wooden casements, while the upper floor has three-light 18th-century windows with iron casements, under square heads and brick labels. The older red brick lower storey may have been the Red House at Hadham Ford, which was occupied by Nicholas Segar from 1792 to 1793 before he moved to Little Hadham Place.