Offley Place (Hertfordshire Educational Department Residential Centre) And Linked North Service Block

A country house, now used as a residential centre, was constructed between 1806 and 1810 by Sir Robert Smirke for Rev Lynch Salusbury. The design incorporated a 17th-century east wing of the manor house of Offley St Ledgers, which was recased. In 1929, the stair tower was reduced in height for Colonel Acland. The building has been used for educational purposes since 1943. It is built of red brick in Flemish bond, with white brick dressings, and the front range was stuccoed in the later 19th century. The roofs are hipped and slate-covered. The house is three stories tall and symmetrical, facing west and situated within parkland north of the parish church. A square, crenelated stair tower, originally of a greater height, has been lost; it formerly featured three clearstorey windows on each face, reminiscent of Wyatt's design for Ashridge. Diagonal buttresses are present at the angles, with paired corner buttresses added to the old east wing. The west front, with five windows, has a narrow, projecting central bay, gabled and with diagonal buttresses, and a projecting Gothic porch featuring a pointed archway and a rib-vaulted ceiling. The windows are two-light, mullioned and transomed, with smaller windows on the second floor. These windows have wooden sliding sashes. An engraving by Neale depicts twin, single-story crenelated bay windows on the south end, which have since been removed. The east face of this south end retains its original brickwork, with a tall, pointed niche and a gauged brick vaulted head. To the north is a rectangular two-story service wing with square corner turrets and pointed slits. Two contemporary, single-story linking ranges feature disproportionately large, painted corbels below the eaves. Originally, the house included a Drawing Room south of the entrance, a Dining Room to the rear, a Breakfast Room north of the entrance, and a small Parlour to the rear. The lofty ground floor of the older east wing served as a Library. The main entrance leads into a wide, stone-paved hall, screened by a glazed timber Gothic screen. An archway opens into a square central stair hall with three pointed windows and a skylight under a lantern. Stone steps descend to the library, and a single stair rises on either side of the tower. An Arts and Crafts copper chandelier hangs centrally. The entrance features heavy, pointed double doors with narrow panels and cusped heads. A southwest room contains an 18th-century white marble, classical fireplace. Upper floors have six-panel, moulded, divided doors. The former library has a four-centred stone fireplace and twin, coved niches on the west wall with shaped shelves.