Rothamsted Manor House

Rothamsted Manor House

A large manor house, now used as a hall of residence, located at Hatching Green in Harpenden Rural. The building is Grade I listed.

The house was largely constructed in the mid-17th century, with payments for bricks recorded in 1648/9 and 1653 for Sir John Wittewronge. Some 16th-century timber framing survives within the structure. The property was extended on the north-west side in 1863 for Sir John Bennet Lawes, and the interiors were substantially remodelled for Sir C.B. Lawes-Wittewronge between approximately 1900 and 1910.

The building is constructed of dark red brick with plain tile roofs. The 17th-century house follows an F-plan, with the long south range forming the principal elevation. The two north-west wings originally had a recessed space between them, which was enclosed in 1863 when the west range was extended by two bays. The structure rises to two storeys with attics.

The south range is double-pile in depth, featuring nine broad mullioned and transomed casements, all retaining their original oak frames and leaded lights. A square, three-storeyed central porch-tower is flanked on the first floor by one-window recesses. The two bays either side are surmounted by wide shaped attic gables with scrolled brick sides and triangular and segmental pediments. A continuous moulded brick cornice runs across the façade, with a plain first-floor band. Ground-floor windows are set within segmental-headed relieving arches. The porch itself is in Doric style, executed in cut brick with bulging pilasters and a simple entablature, and retains its original oak door with moulded panels. At the south end is one bay of a loggia, formerly open, which returns for three bays along the south elevation, featuring chamfered arches in square relieving frames with white-painted brick. Above the porch is the Wittewronge coat of arms in a sunken panel, and at the top is a 19th-century wooden and leaded cupola in Gothic style.

The west elevation contains five windows; the two large windows on the north are a 1900 remodelling by T.G. Jackson. Three elaborate cut brick gables on this elevation have scroll-shaped sides and pediments, the middle one flanked by Ionic pilasters. The gable pattern continues across the two 1863 bays. A cartouche in the centre, dated 1665, was added in 1906.

The east side opens onto a courtyard, partly closed by the projecting bay of an L-shaped mid-17th-century service wing on the north. This wing is timber-framed with red brick infill, though it displays a mid-18th-century façade towards the courtyard, featuring a parapet, floor band, and five 18th-century casement openings. A segmental arch leads to the carriage way, with timber framing and an adjoining 17th-century doorway on its outer side. The main ranges of the house retain some 17th-century windows.

The interior contains numerous notable features. The hall incorporates reused mid-16th-century linenfold panelling from Clare, Suffolk, featuring a frieze with heads. The morning room to the north of the hall contains a stone fireplace from Rawdon House, Hoddesdon, executed in white and black marble. The former dining room to the south of the hall retains mid-17th-century panelling with fluted Ionic pilasters and plastered beams decorated with running motifs, together with a stone Jacobean chimney piece. Behind the panelling is a remarkably complete scheme of late 16th or early 17th-century wall paintings. A small room at the south end of the west range features 18th or 19th-century gilded wallpaper with painted flowers, a good 16th-century chimney piece, and matching overmantel. Beyond this is a large dining room in an extravagant Jacobethan style, with linenfold panelling to doors and walls, a large central fireplace with black marble columns, and a rich overmantel. The library wing at the north end was added in 1910 by V.T. Hodgson and incorporates the most elaborate fireplace from Rawdon House, featuring grotesque caryatides of satyr and nymph, with an overmantel depicting satyrs playing musical instruments.

A 1678 staircase with an open well leads off from the hall, featuring tall shaped finials to newel posts and tapering balusters with arches between them. Walls from the first floor to the attic are decorated with painted relief of balustrade. A similar, smaller staircase to the east of the hall also retains painted relief. The Pink Room on the first floor contains a fireplace from Rawdon House with animal carvings in its overmantel. A good 17th-century doorcase serves the main first-floor landing. Another fireplace is located in The Brown Room.