Poynders End

Details

TL 12 SE PRESTON POYNDERS END

4/105 Poynders End

II

House. '1906 HES' on weathervane. By Geoffrey Lucas for Frederick Seebohm as wedding present for his son Hugh Exton Seebohm. Largely roughcast, some red brick in English-bond, very steep dark red tile roofs with swept valleys. A tall L-shaped 2-storeys, cellar and attics Free Jacobean style house entered from W with main rooms facing E and single-storey arcaded outhouse and garage range extending to S and facing E. Informal plan with large L-shaped drawing room occupying N end of range lit by rectangular bay window at NW and semi-octagonal bay at E. Dining room has 2 similar semi-octagonal bays on E and is separated by a passage from the large stair hall on the W side of the house. The kitchen, butler's pantry and other service rooms occupy the parts to the S of the stair and project in a short gabled wing on W answered by a cross-gable on the E front. The front entrance gives onto a small lobby with a door directly into the drawing room and a twin door into the staircase hall. The W side of the house is austere with a full-height narrow gabled porch with 4-centred arched moulded oak entrance with 3-lights flush mullioned wooden leaded casement on 1st floor and small lozenge shaped decorative window in gable. 2 canted dormers on roofslope to right and massive red brick internal central chimney with corbelled top. 6-lights casement window to staircase hall with row of 3 small 2-lights windows to ground floor. Symmetrical display of casement windows in horizontal bands to W gable of projecting wing to right hand. A 4-lights casement window over a long band on 1st floor made up of 3 2-lights casements separated by 2 decorative plaster panels the size of one light with lozenge motif all under a continuous drip. 4-lights casement to ground floor central below. Tall red brick chimney rises in N roofslope of wing. Wide oak plank front door with decorative iron fittings set back in porch which is lined in red brick. E front also' asymmetrical with 3 2-storeys semi-octagonal large bay windows, with roughcast aprons and red brick bases. A recessed loggia in red brick separates the northern bay from the 2 lighting the dining room. Wrought iron sundial on oak panelling over loggia has butterfly dovetails joining the boards and a Greek inscription. Transomed mullioned casement windows to bays with rectangular leaded panes. Double doors off-centre in loggia into stair lobby. S part of this front has flush mullioned wooden windows with leaded glazing a 5-lights window to ground floor and 3 2-lights windows to 1st floor. The S gable of the house has a wide oriel window with cove beneath and elm boarding to the jettied gable triangle over. The N gable end is a carefully designed asymmetric composition with projecting massive gable chimney in red brick flanked at each level by small 2-lights windows with rounded heads to lights, and large rectangular 2-storeys bay window with tiled gabled roof, brick base, and cast lead decorative panelled apron to jettied upper storey. The original double garage at the S end of the group rises above the outhouse and is reached by a recessed covered way with timber arcade. Wrought iron wind-vane with date and initials on garage. Interior has Jacobean moulded string staircase with turned pine balusters, oak moulded hand rail, heavy square newels and each tread a triangular section of elm moulded on sloping soffit. Painted white panelling and wide 4-centred stone fireplace to drawing room with herringbone tile pattern to fireback. 4-centred simpler fire screen to dining room which has lozenge-shaped decorative bosses on ceiling with loops for oil lamps. Complete fitted butler's pantry. Deep recess on half landing of stair and mezzanine planning of service rooms behind. (Pevsner (1977)173).

Listing NGR: TL1903124896

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

162897

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire, (1977), 173

End of official list entry

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