The Fortress is a Grade II listed building in the Hertsmere local planning authority area, England. First listed on 12 August 1985. House. 5 related planning applications.
The Fortress
- WRENN ID
- rough-niche-furze
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Hertsmere
- Constituency
- Hertsmere MP: Sir Oliver Dowden (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 12 August 1985
- Type
- House
- Address
- The Fortress, Common Lane, Aldenham, WD25 8EE
- OS grid reference
- TQ 151 978
- Coordinates
- 51.66784, -0.33608
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Fortress is a house dating from the late 18th century or early 19th century, with extensions and alterations made around 1850 to 1860. It is constructed of stock brick and stucco, topped with slate roofs. The building originally featured a four-window front and is two storeys high. The entrance is located in the third bay from the right and is framed by a Tuscan porch.
On the ground floor, there are two three-light windows to the right and a four-light window to the left, all with moulded architraves that have slightly cambered heads and bracketed sills. The design includes floating bracketed cornices. The first floor has two-light windows to the left and three-light windows to the right, with a cornice leading to a coped parapet that has a stack at the right end corner.
To the left, there is a one-bay extension that is set back, featuring three-light casements with segmental heads on the first floor. The left return has an extruded stack adorned with decorated pots, and there is a similar stack at the original left end. The right return is plain brick and includes a full-height canted bay.
At the rear, there is a flat-roofed one-storey outshut to the right and a mid-19th century extension to the left, which has a parapet that steps up at the angles. The garden entrance features sidelights and a bracketed cornice, while the first floor has a round-headed staircase window with an ornamented architrave and a stack with four decorated pots.
To the rear right, there is a mid-19th century square tower that is slightly taller than the rest of the house, featuring round-headed windows, a stone balustraded parapet, and corner ball finials. An octagonal stained glass lantern is also present. The interior has not been inspected.
Local climate
The Fortress 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 89% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 87% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 31 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 61% of listed buildings. Of these, 15 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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- Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
- Sale history — 4 transactions since 2012
- Related listed building consents — 5 applications
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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