THE MANOR OF GROVES

THE MANOR OF GROVES, HIGH WYCH LANE

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1220470
Date first listed:: 29-Apr-1985
List Entry Name:: THE MANOR OF GROVES
Statutory Address:: THE MANOR OF GROVES, HIGH WYCH LANE

The Missing Pieces Project

Share your view of unique places.

Add your contribution

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Images of England Project

To view this image please use Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Edge.

Archive image, may not represent current condition of site.

Date:: 2002-08-21
Reference:: IOE01/08604/15
Rights:: © Mr A. Gude. Source: Historic England Archive

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1220470
Date first listed:: 29-Apr-1985
List Entry Name:: THE MANOR OF GROVES
Statutory Address 1:: THE MANOR OF GROVES, HIGH WYCH LANE

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: THE MANOR OF GROVES, HIGH WYCH LANE

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Hertfordshire
District:: East Hertfordshire (District Authority)
Parish:: High Wych
National Grid Reference:: TL 45914 14728

Details

TL 41 SE HIGH WYCH HIGH WYCH LANE (west side) High Wych Village

6/2 The Manor of Groves (Formerly Grove Lodge) - - II Country house. Early C19 remodelling of an earlier house, probably for Thomas Nathaniel Williams, the owner in 1823 (VCH (1912) 339), at the manorial centre of lands belonging to Reading Abbey up to the Dissolution. Stucco neo-classical house with hipped slate roofs, set in a small park, facing S. Large 2 storey pavilions appear to have been added to each end of a lower and earlier, 3 storey centre and the whole fronted by a continuous projecting stone loggia or 'colonnade' after the manner of Henry Holland's remodelling of Southill House, Beds (1796-1800). W pavilion contains a high kitchen with a bedroom over: E pavilion formerly contained the diningroom, entrance hall and staircase with the drawing-room probably on the 1st floor. This wing was altered and sympathetically extended northwards c.1904 possibly by Alfred Burr FRIBA (signed survey plan of house). The semicircular Ionic E porch, shown on old photographs c.1914 in the house, no longer exists. The long S front has 3 casement windows along the central part and 2 sash windows to each pavilion. The Doric colonnade of 8 bays obscures the lower storey. It has fine Portland stone columns said to be from London Bridge, and the entablature and balustrade with die over each column is in a yellow stone. The loggia is paved in grey and white marble, and has had the column spacing adjusted next to the E pavilion to accommodate a glazed timber screen. Chanelled plaster pilasters in the central section are differently spaced and suggest an earlier loggia confined to this part. Hipped roofs of pavilions have a broad eaves overhang with paired brackets to the painted soffit. Recessed sash windows with 6/6 panes on each floor. Lower centre has 3, hipped dormers breaking through eaves, and 3-light wooden casement windows with small panes on the 1st floor. Entrance front on E has channelled rustication to the lower floor with round-headed windows each with a recessed arch and with a sunk panel below. 2-light wooden casements with margin lights and heavy central meeting rails. Elliptical-coved head to doorway diminishes to semicircular inner doorway between slender fluted Greek Doric columns in the angles. Flanking tapered pilasters and semicircular step remain from earlier external stone porch. Smooth stucco upper part has projecting moulded window surrounds to the tall sash windows with 6/6 panes. Originally this facade was of 3 widely spaced windows with the entrance door below the righthand window. The extension to the N has produced a 6-window elevation with the original door still in the centre, but more closely spaced new matching windows to the right on each floor. Glazed double doors with semicircular fanlight and elaborate arrangement of folding shutters on the inside. Shallow additions in painted brick in service court at rear (N). At W end of loggia a small single storey slate and stucco billiard room with very large 3-sided canted wooden bay window on S with sashes. A C19 building on W end is higher, with a serrated northlight roof. Elaborate interior has unusual cantilevered stair in hardwood, in sub- rectangular stairwell, lit by a tall sash window with margin lights. Moulded, panelled doors curved on plan, at the angles of the Ground floor, with round-headed niches at the half-landing, flanking the door to the older part of the house. Modillioned plaster cornices with paterae. Carved white marble fire surrounds in drawing-room and bedroom over (S rooms of E pavilion). A fine neo-classical small country house.

Listing NGR: TL4591414728

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 394201
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Doubleday, A, The Victoria History of the County of Hertford, (1912), 339

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.