Details
TL3524SE
829-1/9/48
08/05/50
WARE TOWN
BLUECOAT YARD
(East side)
Nos.19-22 (Consecutive)
Place House
(Formerly Listed as:
BLUECOAT YARD
No.21
Place House)
GV
I
Manor house, incorporating aisled hall, subsequently used as
school, now subdivided with community hall (Place House),
office suite (No.20) and 2 maisonettes (Nos 21 and 22),
following restoration. Late C13, altered and extended late
C15/early C16, C17 and C18, restored 1977-78 (architect
Gilbert Williams). Timber-framed, plastered, pebbledashed and
colourwashed, part red brick casing, multiple gabled old tiled
roofs, hipped over rear of Nos 21 and 22, brick chimneystacks.
2 bay aisled hall, with cross passage and service wing to
right (east).
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys with attics above service wing (part Nos
21 and 22).
South front facing garden has projecting 2 storey C17 gabled
porch, with recessed entry beneath heavy late C13 chamfered
pointed timber arch, with pair C20 half-glazed doors, into
screens passage. Room above, with 2-light casement window with
divided glazing. Roof concealed by 4 coped gables; between
first 2 from left is rainwater head dated 1718. To left, first
floor has two 2-light casement windows with small panes; twin
gables above, with parapets concealing roof. At left C17
rendered chimneystack with offsets, and brick stack above,
rebuilt 1977. Ground floor has one pair of C20 French casement
doors with divided glazing, set beneath a segmental arch and
one 2-light casement window. To right of porch, one 3-light
mullion and transom windows, that on first floor with small
panes, and a recessed sash window lighting attics above.
Rendered C17 chimneystack, with brick stack above, at right.
Left hand side elevation (west) faces Bluecoat Yard. Main
block 2 storey, with restored multi-light mullioned windows
lighting upper part of hall and roof structure within.
Rendered chimneystack with brick shaft at right. In centre is
early C19 doorway, with 5 panel door, 2 flush panels at
bottom, 2 fielded and raised panels in centre, and upper panel
glazed as 3 lights, in architrave surround. Doorcase with slim
reeded pilasters, capitals with paterae, Adam style frieze
with garlands, reeded cornice, and projecting 2-panelled flat
door hood with lead flat roof. To left on ground floor is
early C19 canted bay window with brick base, sashes with
glazing bars, and concave lead canopy roof; on first floor one
4-light mullion and transom casement window with glazing bars.
Structure cased in red brick, C18, Flemish bond, with brick
stack, offsets, and brick upper shaft at left.
Beyond is outbuilding rebuilt 1977, single storey and attics
facing Bluecoat Yard, one 2-light C20 casement window on
ground floor, C20 gabled dormer in old tiled roof. Rear
(north) elevation has recessed centre, encased in red brick,
Flemish and irregular bond, 2 storeys, with entrance door to
No.22 (maisonette) reflecting position of cross passage.
2-panelled door recessed in early C18 architrave surround,
with fanlight of 2 fixed lights, each divided into 4 panes.
C20 window with top-hung opening casement, all small panes,
below segmental brick arch, and at right twin-leaved
half-glazed early C19 doors, beneath segmental brick arch, now
forming entrance to No.20 (first floor office suite). Two
2-light casement flush windows at first floor, beneath
half-brick flat arches, and one small, one large brick gable
with parapets concealing roof. Rainwater head dated 1718 at
right.
At left is projecting service wing, 2 storey and attics,
plastered, pebbledashed and colourwashed over timber frame,
projecting further north is single storey C18 outbuilding,
altered 1970s, brick with old tiled roof.
INTERIOR: the major element of Place House is the aisled hall,
of 2 unequal bays, with spere truss and screens passage to the
east. Octagonal columns with square pads, moulded bases and
moulded capitals. Arch-braced tie-beams with intermediate
struts - the arch braces in the centre were restored in 1977
to a more slender section than indicated by the mortices. The
tie-beam is cambered and has twin bold roll mouldings, carried
round the hall as a cornice, and at the west end across a
tie-beam, now removed, beyond which was a 3 bay cross-wing,
the position for whose tie-beams are indicated by dovetail
housings in the wall plate. Mortices in the east arcade post
at first floor level within No.20 indicate the original
existence of a further bay to the east. 2 bays of the south
aisle survive; in the C18 a fireplace was inserted in the
north aisle. Crown post roof, with central octagonal crown
post, with moulded base and cap, fore and aft bracing to
collar purlin, and lateral bracing to collars. Square crown
post at west end, and above tie-beam which marks screen
position. Archaic splayed and tabled scarf joint in arcade
plate to the east of the central truss has been stated as
confirming C13 date of the original structure. The spere
screen, originally removable, dates from early C16, and has 2
octagonal posts with moulded bases and caps carved with
pomegranates and Tudor roses, and is divided into 12 panels,
plain below and ornamental above in 2 rows, with urns, flowers
and heraldic motifs. The half-rose with half-pomegranate was a
badge used by Mary Tudor Lady of the Manor in 1550, and it has
been suggested that the shield with 3 motifs, shows
well-heads, and is the badge of her steward, Richard Welles.
The date 1637 painted on is later than the construction. The
corner fireplaces were inserted late C17, when the building
was adapted by Christ's Hospital for use as Bluecoats School.
The rear ground floor room behind the hall contains reset C17
panelling, and a mid C18 fireplace surround with moulded
architrave. East of the screens passage the service wing was
constructed early C17, and the ground floor room east of the
hall, the parlour, was decorated with painted-on panelling as
a wainscot, with florid scrollwork above. The remaining ground
floor rooms were service rooms including the kitchen and
buttery. Above were 4 rooms, with access from a close string
newel staircase with bobbin balusters to first floor and 'S'
splat baluster in flights to attics. Service wing is now
shared between Nos 20, 21 and 22.
HISTORICAL NOTE: Ware Manor was held by Hugh de Grentmesnil in
1086. Place House was probably constructed during the tenure
of John Wake, 1285-1300. Joan of Kent, widow of the Black
Prince, mother of Richard II held the Manor between 1352 and
1384. The Manor descended by marriage to Richard III, and was
granted by Henry VII to his mother, Margaret Beaufort,
Countess of Richmond in 1487, who held it until 1509. Between
1575 and 1587 the Manor was acquired by Thomas Fanshawe, who
built Ware Park, and leased out the Manor House. Humphrey
Packer who leased part of the Manor in the mid C17 may have
rebuilt the east wing. Christ's Hospital acquired the property
with the remainder of Bluecoat Yard in November 1685, and
remodelled Place House by demolishing the west wing, adapting
the hall as a large classroom by extending it northwards,
demolishing the north aisle. The south aisle was heightened to
2 storeys and the corner fireplaces were added. The east wing
was adapted as the schoolmaster's house. The Bluecoat School
at Ware closed in 1761. An upper floor was inserted in the
schoolroom in late C18, and removed in 1977. Place House
returned to educational use in the mid C19, which ceased by
1880. In the early 1970s Place House, which had deteriorated,
was acquired and restored by the Hertfordshire Building
Preservation Trust Ltd., architect Gilbert Williams, and was
re-opened in 1978 by HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The
building is one of the most important early medieval
timber-framed structures in the County.
(Hunt EM: The History of Ware: Hertford: 1986-1946: 1-10; The
Buildings of England: Pevsner N (rev. Cherry B):
Hertfordshire: Harmondsworth: 1977-: 25, 379; Smith JT:
English Houses 1200-1800. The Hertfordshire Evidence: London:
1992-: 13/4,25/6,143,177/8; Smith JT: Hertfordshire Houses.
Selective Inventory: London: 1993-: 195-7; Ware 25" to 1 Mile.
Surveyed by the Ordnance Survey Department: 1851-; The
Victoria History of the County of Hertford: London: 1912-:
381, 385-92; Forrester H: Timber Framed Buildings in Hertford
and Ware: Hitchin: 1964-: 30-1; Christ's Hospital Archives Map
1685: 1685-; Rowe V Dr: The Bluecoat Children in Ware
1564-1761: Ware Society: 1983-; Hewett CA: English Historic
Carpentry: Chichester: 1982-: 122-3 FIG252/330/356).
Listing NGR: TL3592214357
