The Grove the Grove Including Retaining Wall, Piers and Steps is a Grade II listed building in the East Hertfordshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 12 April 1973. A Victorian House.

The Grove the Grove Including Retaining Wall, Piers and Steps

WRENN ID
strange-clay-crow
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
East Hertfordshire
Constituency
Hertford and Stortford MP: Josh Dean (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
12 April 1973
Type
House
Period
Victorian
Address
The Grove the Grove Including Retaining Wall, Piers and Steps, Port Hill, Hertford
OS grid reference
TL 322 130
Coordinates
51.80061, -0.08357
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Grove is a house dating to circa 1833. It is constructed of yellow stock brick in a Flemish bond pattern, with yellow-grey pilaster strips. The roof is Welsh slated, hipped, with broad, panelled eaves and flat brackets, and a grey brick chimney stack with oversailing bands. The house is of a square central entry, double-depth plan.

The west elevation has two storeys and attics. The first floor has three slightly recessed 12-pane sash windows, each beneath a rubbed brick flat arch. A plat band runs at first-floor level. The ground floor has two full-length sashes with six large panes, also with rubbed brick flat arches. Pilaster strips mark the ends and frame the centre bay, which contains twin-leaf, 2-panel doors with raised surrounds, set within a moulded frame and surmounted by a semicircular, traceried fanlight. A portico doorcase features Tuscan Doric columns and responds, an entablature with a plain fascia and frieze, a moulded cornice, and a blocking course, and is raised above three windows on the first floor. A large 20th-century timber conservatory covers the two left-hand bays. French windows with sidelights are located to the right.

The west elevation incorporates a canted oriel bay with triple 4:12:4-pane sashes, a brick spandrel raised on corbelled brick, an arched doorway left of centre with a half-glazed, margin-glazed door, and six-light French windows beneath a painted metal concave canopy roof with fretted valance.

The interior features plain details typical of the early 19th century. The central hall contains an open string staircase with cut, bracketed treads, stick balusters, and a moulded hardwood rail. The morning room has an egg-and-dart plaster cornice with an acanthus border to the ceiling, while the dining room has a scotia moulded plaster cornice and a reeded band. The kitchen at the rear has a flagged stone floor and a fitted dresser. On the first floor, a glazed lantern light illuminates the landing, and a large rear room includes an interpolated, reset 18th-century style fire surround with an eared architrave and a moulded shelf, alongside plaster wall panelling.

External features include a gateway to the main garden at the south-west corner of the house: this has brick piers topped with stone pineapples and a wrought-iron gate with segmental rails and scrolled Gothick ogee top. A tall, buttressed brown brick retaining wall, with flights of steps, piers, urns, and a fitted slate seat, runs to the east of the house.

Local climate

The Grove the Grove Including Retaining Wall, Piers and Steps sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 710 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 88% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 84% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 33 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 55% of listed buildings. Of these, 16 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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