Olives Farm House Along Track 220 Metres From Road

Details

TL 41 SW HUNSDON STANSTEAD ROAD (south side)

2/4 Olives Farm house (Formerly listed as 4.12.51 Olives Farmhouse) ) along track 220 metres from road

GV II*

House. C15 open hall house with sooted roof, floor and chimney inserted in early C17, kitchen wing added at NE in later C17, extended to rear in early C18, single storey and cellar extension on S end in early C19. Timberframed plastered house with steep pitched, old red tile, gabled roofs. Red brick low early C19 extension at S with hipped roof. 2 storeys, 4 windows house facing W. Double-pile plan produced by additions to C15 front range. Layout of continuous axial crown post roof suggests a 2 storeys parlour bay to N of a 2-bay hall (heavily soot blackened), a narrow bay for the cross passage with a wide service bay at S end, probably of 2 storeys. Open truss of hall mutilated and collar purlin cut for inserted C17 brick chimney in N bay of hall. This has no fireplace for the parlour which then became a dairy and the kitchen was subsequently built alongside in the later C17. This was extended southward to complete the double-pile plan in the early C18. W front is partly symmetrical - about the door with 1 window on each side. More irregular at N part, with windows not in line. Flush box sash windows with louvred shutters and 3/6 panes on 1st floor. Triple sashes on Ground floor with 2/2:6/6:2/2 panes. Broad architrave to door early C18 moulded and carved. Flush panelled externally, the 6- panel door has ovolo mouldings with 2 fillets and heavy iron hinges inside. Rustic gabled porch. Repairs to N wall revealed close studding with tension bracing, and long straight down bracing from crown post to tie beam (photograph at farm). N wall of kitchen refaced in brick. 3-light leaded casement window on 1st floor. Similar Ground floor window with wooden casements. Rear door half-glazed with heavy ovolo moulded glazing bars and enriched moulded architrave. Heavy 8-panelled ovolo moulded inner door with raised and fielded panels on inner face. Hall fireplace partially blocked, and 2 cross beams to carry inserted floor. Part of E side wall cut away and cast iron column inserted. Axial beams in both end rooms. Upper room at N end has lower floor level, C17 axial ceiling beam with chamfered joists, and a blocked 3-light window on the front wall at the N end, with head mortices for diamond mullions. Signs of a corresponding window on rear wall in corner staircase. Plain tall square crown posts with deep curved braces to collar purlin only. Dovetail lap joints of collars to rafters on N side of each couple. Remains of timberframed smoke hood around upper part of brick chimney. John Olive obtained land in the parish in 1344. The first known owner of the house was John Shelley, a London mercer who died in 1486, who held it of Waltham Abbey. His wife's brass is in the church (HLHS (1979) 33 and additional information from Miss Palmer at Olives Farm). An important early timberframed house of exceptional interest for its crown post roof and for parlour, hall and service bay being arranged axially under a single gabled roof. (RCHM (1911) 128a: HLHS (1979) 33: RCHM Typescript).

Listing NGR: TL4080712652

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

160001

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

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

End of official list entry

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