Layston Court
LAYSTON COURT, 20, HIGH STREET
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1101341
- Date first listed:
- 19-Oct-1951
- List Entry Name:
- Layston Court
- Statutory Address:
- LAYSTON COURT, 20, HIGH STREET
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2002-05-31
- Reference:
- IOE01/07384/06
- Rights:
- © Mr A. Gude. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1101341
- Date first listed:
- 19-Oct-1951
- List Entry Name:
- Layston Court
- Statutory Address 1:
- LAYSTON COURT, 20, HIGH STREET
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
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.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
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.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- LAYSTON COURT, 20, HIGH STREET
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Hertfordshire
- District:
- East Hertfordshire (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Buntingford
- National Grid Reference:
- TL 36268 29493
Details
TL 3629 BUNTINGFORD HIGH STREET (east side)
7/11 No 20 (Layston Court) 19.10.51
GV II
Grammar school and master's house, now one house. School built 1630-3 for Elizabeth Freeman of Aspenden Hall, re-endowed 1684 by Bishop Seth Ward and Lady Jane Barkham, house early C18 added at right angles. Used as school up to 1877, subsequently altered and S wing added. School in red brick and English-bond with stone windows and steep old red tile roof. House timber framed and plastered with a hipped old red tile roof stucco S wing extension. A large rectangular brick school building facing W with moulded gable parapets and unusual projecting gable chimneys with short octagonal shafts linked by a heavy capping. Chamfered plinth and a tall, single-storey front with deep eaves band, transomed ovolo moulded windows and a fine brick-pedimented, rusticated, round-arched central entrance. Hollow-chamfered tie- beams supported by curved braces from hollow-chamfered wallposts carry the butt-purlin oak roof with collar-trusses. Scratch- moulded panelling in N bay of 3, may indicate the original master's accommodation specified in the 1633 Will as under one roof with the school room for 25 boys. An attic floor was inserted with large gabled dormer windows before 1830 (Buckler dwg. in HRO). An early C20 lean-to porch covers the pedimented entrance, with a bay window to the right, and the brick work of the front plastered. The rear is less altered but the stone transomed ovolo-moulded windows may replace plastered brick ones noted by VCH c.1914. Early C18 master's house of 2 storeys, 4 windows wide with flush box sash windows, taller on Ground floor, of 6/6 panes. Tall Doric pilastered wooden doorcase with fluted pilasters and keystone beneath triglyph frieze and panelled hood. Door leads into a lofty Ground floor room possibly a former schoolroom. (RCHM (1911)139: VCH (1914)80: Pevsner (1977)118: RCHM Typescript).
Listing NGR: TL3626529496
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 159753
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Doubleday, AH, The Victoria History of the County of Hertford, (1914), 80
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire, (1977), 118
Other
Inventory of the Historical Monuments of Hertfordshire, (1910)
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 05-Jun-2026 at 14:27:46.
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