Fairlands Farm

Fairlands Farm is a former farmhouse that began as a 17th-century timber-framed building, extensively remodelled in the 19th century.

The building comprises a double range: the western range dates principally to the 17th century, while the eastern range is of mid-19th-century date. The structure has gable roofs covered with tiles and is encased in mid-19th-century red and purple bricks laid in Flemish bond on the north, west and east elevations, and in red brick in stretcher bond on the south elevation.

The present north-facing façade comprises two gables with an off-centre part-glazed porch. Each range has one 6-over-6 light sash window with segmental brick head on the ground and first floors, with smaller window openings at attic height, the latter blocked in the east range. The east elevation features a projecting wing to the south with a bay window at ground floor and 6-over-6 light sash windows. The south elevation has a central projecting gable incorporating the 17th-century interior. At ground floor is an off-centre 19th-century door and door case, with a canted bay to the left containing a 6-over-6 light sash window. Above are two pairs of 4-over-4 light sash windows at first floor and a smaller 6-over-6 light sash at attic height. Single storey additions lie to the west, with a projecting wing to the right featuring a large external stack laid in English bond. Timber studs at first floor height to the left of the stack may be remnants of the earlier 17th-century projecting wing, with later infill panels of brick in stretcher bond. The west elevation has single storey additions to the south and an outshot with pent roof to the north.

The western range retains the floor framing, roof structure and internal arrangement of a 17th-century lobby entrance house. The entrance on the north elevation leads into a room north of a large in-situ stack constructed with thin hand-made 17th-century bricks. This room contains a large inglenook fireplace with bread oven and settle positions, and a substantial bressumer, possibly original, though its supporting brackets are not. An iron fireback attached to the stack is dated 1588 and bears letters IHC and anchor motifs. To the right of the stack is a 17th-century timber battened door with small inserted glazed opening, featuring a strap hinge and door latch probably of 17th-century date. Another timber battened door to the left of the stack, remodelled but retaining possibly original latch and hinge, also survives. A chamfered axial bridging beam with delicate lambs tongue stops is cut away at the north end by the 19th-century wall. A parallel beam to the east, now encased with modern materials, may mark the position of the original front wall of the 17th-century house, now removed. The stack occupies its own bay with a winding stair with reset treads to the rear. Another fireplace on the south side of the stack indicates this space, remodelled in the 19th century, was once another room in the 17th-century house. A second axial chamfered bridging beam with delicate lambs tongue stops spans from the stack to the south wall, fixing into a midrail.

The first floor of the western range is accessed by the winding stair to the rear of the stack and by a mid-19th-century stair in the projecting wing to the east. Sections of wall plate, jowled and straight wall posts and part of a tie beam, probably from a 17th-century projecting wing, have been incorporated into the 19th-century projecting wing. The internal layout focuses on the stack. Corridors with chamfered and stopped arched door surrounds access the room to the north, which has in-situ wide oak floorboards and two timber battened doors, one with an HL hinge. A 18th-century hob plate has been inserted into the south of the stack. Both first floor rooms have axial chamfered bridging beams with lambs tongue stops, and the wall plate is apparent to the west and east. An in-situ contemporary winding stair to the rear of the tapering stack leads to the attic, where a common coupled rafter roof, pegged and jointed with side purlins, bird-mouth collars and windbraces survives substantially intact.

The eastern range incorporates built-in cupboards, window shutters, 4-panel doors and simple cornices typical of mid-19th-century houses, with some 19th-century fireplaces remaining. A corridor runs north-south through the ground floor, from which a door leads to a cellar.

The farmhouse or its predecessor is documented from at least the 16th century, when several generations of the Hyde family farmed in the valley. An inventory of 1685, when the farm was owned by William Tyttmus, valued the building and goods at £815, a considerable sum at the time. By 1731 the Manor of Fairlands was part of the estate of the Lyttons of Knebworth and was tenanted by various families until compulsorily purchased for new town development in the 1950s. The earliest form, a lobby-entrance house, probably timber-framed and dating from at least the 17th century, shows evidence of a wing added to the east shortly after initial construction. A drawing of 1804 by G. Oldfield probably depicts the west elevation, showing a central stack, an end stack to the south and a rear wing, with a central door featuring a late 18th-century doorcase and mullion and transom windows. In the 19th century the farmhouse was encased and extended, with an additional range added and elevations radically altered. The principal entrance was moved to the north, bay windows added to the east and south, and ancillary extensions including a dairy made to the west. Despite these changes, the internal arrangement of the lobby entrance farmhouse remains legible, and 17th-century floor frames, interior doors, fixtures and fittings survive.