The Old Rectory

THE OLD RECTORY, THE STREET

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Explore this list entry

Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1173742
Date first listed:
19-Oct-1951
List Entry Name:
The Old Rectory
Statutory Address:
THE OLD RECTORY, THE STREET

Have you got a photo to share?

Join the Missing Pieces Project. We want you to share your photos and memories.

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places. 

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions .

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

Icon Buildings
Icon Scheduled monuments
Icon Parks and gardens
Icon Battlefields
Icon Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Images of England Project

To view this image please use Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Edge.
Archive image, may not represent current condition of site.
Date:
2002-05-31
Reference:
IOE01/07481/11
Rights:
© Mr Graham R. Heasman. Source: Historic England Archive

Local Heritage Hub

Unlock and explore hidden histories, aerial photography, and listed buildings and places for every county, district, city and major town across England.

Discover more

Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1173742
Date first listed:
19-Oct-1951
Date of most recent amendment:
06-Jul-1984
List Entry Name:
The Old Rectory
Statutory Address 1:
THE OLD RECTORY, THE 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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:
THE OLD RECTORY, THE STREET

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:
Hertfordshire
District:
East Hertfordshire (District Authority)
Parish:
Aspenden
National Grid Reference:
TL 35442 28200

Details

TL 3528 ASPENDEN THE STREET (south side)

8/10 The Old Rectory (formerly listed as 19.10.51 The Rectory)

GV II

Rectory, now a private house. Late C15 or early C16 Wealden house, late C16 inserted floor with jetty linking wings, W end chimney and former central chimney in hall. Early C17 E-end chimney and service extension beyond. Small 2-storeys gabled tower added on S in late C17, possibly a small stair turret originally. Renovated c1870 (VCH (1914) 17) with 2 storeys gabled larder wing on N side of kitchen, rear lateral chimney to hall, and new windows at rear. Timber frame plastered with fan pargetting and 2 roses in relief on rear turret. Painted brick walls to lower E extension. Plastered brick N larder extension. Steep old red tile roofs. Red brick chimneys. A fine 2-storeys 3-cells former open-hall house, with storeyed ends jettied to the front, under a continuous gabled roof, spere-truss and clasped purlin hall roof. Subsequent alterations in C16 involved the addition of a heavily moulded beamed floor in the hall extending to support a jettied front on the N side linking the older jetties of the wings into a continuous front jetty on curved knee-braces. Also an external W gable fireplace to the parlour with a double-trefoil recess in the brickwork over the lintel. The E service bay beyond the cross-passage was converted to a kitchen in the early C17 and a one and a half storeys, 2- cells, service wing built extending to E, later clad in brickwork on S and E. Jettied N front has 3 windows on each floor and broad battened door in C18 moulded surround under small-paned fanlight between heavy original brackets marking the screens passage. 3-light mullioned leaded casements, in shallow projecting rectangular bays on ground floor. W part windows renewed in wood. Lower service wing set back at E and obscured by tiled and plastered gabled larder wing. Long 4-light casement to service wing. Interior has exposed timbers, chamfered cross- beam and upper part of spere-truss with curved brace cut with mortice for rail for cove up to wall plate and profile of cove cut in the side of the brace. Doorway at 1st floor on SW for former garderobe. Elaborate roll-mouldings to axial and cross- beams of inserted floor in hall. Clasped-purlin roofs to wings. In 1709 terrier described as of 'timber, tiled with 3 rooms, of a floor above and below, garratts over 2 parts, kitchen laid with paving stones, rest boarded. Cellar. Small house adjoining E end ... brick built one side, timber the other, thatched'. Of exceptional interest as a purpose built rectory in the form of a late medieval Wealden house with C16 and C17 additions. (RCHM (1911) 41: VCH (1914) 17: RCHM Typescript).

Listing NGR: TL3544228200

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:
159722
Legacy System:
LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Doubleday, AH, The Victoria History of the County of Hertford, (1914), 17

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.

Ordnance survey map of The Old Rectory

Map

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 04-Jul-2026 at 15:43:55.

Download a full scale map (PDF)
© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. Use of this mapping is subject to Terms and Conditions.

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.

Previous Overview
Next Comments and Photos