Queen Hoo Hall

Details

TEWIN QUEEN HOO LANE TL 21 NE (Southeast side) Queen Hoo Hall 3/157 20.10.52 II* GV Country house. c.1570-85, probably for J. Smyth. Minor c.1800 and C20 alterations. Red brick, English bond, with black brick diapering. Cement rendered dressings. Steeply pitched tiled roof. Traditional 3 room plan in a rectangle with 2 full height projecting 'prospect tower' bay windows, staircase wing to rear. 2 storeys attic and cellar. 4 window front. Entrance in screens passage position to right of hail, plank and muntin door, timber jambs and lintel without original porch. Hall has 6 light mullion and transom casements with lattice lights and ovolo moulded surrounds, 1 on ground floor, 2 on first floor, a small blocked opening with moulded brick surround on ground floor near lower end of hall. Moulded cement rendered plinth. Diamond brick diapering on first floor. Slight raising to swept out eaves. Projecting bay window to left or parlour end has a later entrance with a chamfered 4 centred arched head. First floor 6 light window as in hall, 3 light mullioned attic window. Shaped kneelers to moulded brick gable parapet with 3 original honeycombed finials. Bay window at lower end is similar with 6 lights on ground floor. Left gable end has ground floor and first floor 6 light mullion and transom windows, 2 lights in attic, black brick diapering in gable with shaped kneelers to tumbled in brick parapet. Right gable end has an inserted plank door, 3 lights on ground floor, first floor cross casement, 2 lights in attic, kneelers to brick parapet. To rear staircase wing behind screens passage and 3 large external stacks with hearths to each room. Stair wing has two 2 light casements, a blocked opening with a moulded brick surround and a hipped roof. Entrance in right return. Hall stack adjoins stair wing with a tiled offset above eaves, base tapers up to paired diagonal shafts with oversailing caps. Parlour stack is similar with only 1 offset to right. Kitchen stack is larger with 3 diagonal shafts and is incorporated into c.1800 scullery outshut with a catslide roof, C20 dormer. To rear of this and extending to left is 1 storey C20 outbuilding with a hipped roof. Interior: on ground and first floor hall and parlour stone fireplaces have ovolo moulded depressed Tudor arches, splayed at springings, moulded square heads. Stop chamfered timber lintel to larger kitchen fireplace. Partition walls have panel framing of large scantling, stop chamfered binding beams, staircase with framed central newel with cupboards, transitional between solid newel and open well, tenoned purlin roof. On first floor in room over parlour are late C16 wall paintings, an Old Testament scene, probably Soloman worshipping False Gods, and decorative frieze of foliage, scroll ornamented panels and sinopia work. J. Strutt's Queenhoo Hall, a Romance completed by Walter Scott in 1808 was set here. (East Herts Archaeological Society Transactions, 1903, vol.2, pt.2, pl.78: VCH 1908: RCHM 1910: Country Life, 15/3/62, p.594: Pevsner 1977: RCHM Typescript).

Listing NGR: TL2787416129

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

356267

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Doubleday, AH, The Victoria History of the County of Hertford, (1908)
Strutt, J, Scott, W, Queen Hall House a Romance, (1808)
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire, (1977)
Transactions of the East Hertfordshire Archaeological Society in Transactions of the East Hertfordshire Archaeological Society, Vol. 2, (1903), 178
Country Life in 15 March, (1962), 594

Other
Inventory of the Historical Monuments of Hertfordshire, (1910)

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

Print the official list entry