Remains of Old Gorhambury is a Grade I listed building in the St Albans local planning authority area, England. First listed on 19 October 1953. A C16 House, mansion, ruins.
Remains of Old Gorhambury
- WRENN ID
- sunken-vestry-heron
- Grade
- I
- Local Planning Authority
- St Albans
- Constituency
- Harpenden and Berkhamsted MP: Victoria Collins (LD)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 19 October 1953
- Type
- House, mansion, ruins
- Address
- Remains of Old Gorhambury, Bluehouse Hill, St. Michael
- OS grid reference
- TL 110 076
- Coordinates
- 51.75624, -0.39279
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The remains of Old Gorhambury are the ruins of a mansion that was started in 1563 by Sir Nicholas Bacon and extended in the 1570s. The structure is made of red brick and flint, with stone dressings. The porch and hall are the surviving elements from what was once a two-courtyard house, with the entrance court located to the south and the service court to the north. The two-storey porch features impressive stone classical details, including a three-sided arched entrance on the ground floor flanked by Doric columns, an enriched entablature, and tympana with roundels. The upper floor has square mullioned and transomed windows on the east and west sides, supported by Ionic columns and a dentilled cornice. Above this is an attic that displays a coat of arms. The hall, located to the rear left, retains a tall mullioned and transomed window that marks the dais, along with a lateral stack to the right. Queen Elizabeth I visited the site in 1570, 1573, and 1577. The site is also designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
Local climate
Remains of Old Gorhambury sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 730 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 80% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 77% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 33 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 53% 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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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- 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
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