Clintons

Details

TL 42 SW LITTLE HADHAM BURY GREEN (south side)

1/19 Clintons (formerly listed as 19.10.51 Clinton Hall)

GV II*

House. Fine early C15 timber frame and plastered hall-house with 2 storeys E cross wing incorporating, on E end, a 2 storeys square brick tower possibly the private apartments to an earlier timber hall. Steep old red tile gabled roofs. Floor and E gable chimney inserted in hall in C16. Cross wing re-roofed in line with hall roof and chimneystack inserted on E side in later C17. Lower (W) bay of hall and service rooms demolished and 2 storeys L-shaped hipped roofed N wing added in later C18. Small single storey, red brick and tile, hipped extension recently on N end. Small gabled porch on W with plastered brickwork and slate roof. Upper floor generally plastered and panelled, with red brick below. Early C19 sash windows with 6/6 panes on W front. Modern leaded oak windows in older parts. Sun Fire Mark No 543494 over front door. The upper 2 bays of the former open hall are divided by a heavy moulded tie beam with cusped traceried spandrel to curved brace on S side. A 4-centred arch with carved spandrels on the N side of the upper bay gave onto a former bay window lighting the upper end of the hall. Now in roof space over, are moulded butt purlins and hollow chamfered wind braces in afine medieval roof. Opposite the bay window, the wall plate has an edge-halved scarf with over-squinted bridled butts. The C16 inserted floor in hall has intersecting moulded beams and is said to have moulded joists above plaster ceiling. Plaster decoration matching that in wing dated 1665 at Lower Farm, Bury Green. The 2 storeys cross wing contemporary with the hall has a 1st floor external doorway on S side with 4-centred wooden head and carved spandrels. Square-headed door under. Jowled post at NW corner indicates old roof ran across. Present late C17 roof construction has butt purlins and morticed rafters. Early red brick 2 storeys tower has thick walls, circular stair in NW corner, a fireplace on each floor, with moulded wooden lintels and relieving arches, in E half of N wall, both served by a large external chimney. Upper chamber has 7-faceted plaster ceiling on original roof structure now in roof space. Collar rafter single roof with braces to collars and ashlar pieces, but no longitudinal members. Moulded oak cornice remains on S side. Exterior has axed brick plinth-offset, blocked window openings in S wall and black-brick diaper decoration on E gable end, with a large Latin cross with stepped base, in upper part,offset for windows on right. Clintons is the manor house of the manor of 'Clintons held of the Bishop of Ely and held by Henry Clynton in 1396'. It was in the king's hand by 1407/8 when he granted it to John Rassh for life. In 1439 and 1462, the king again granted it (VCH (1914) 54-5). The fine hall and cross wing were presumably built while the manor was in the gift of Henry VI: the brick wing probably by Henry Clynton or his ecclesiastical superior. Centre of a group of historical buildings at this manorial site (RCHM (1911) 146: VCH (1914) 50, 54-5: Pevsner (1977) 241: RCHM Typescript).

Listing NGR: TL4497420984

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

394769

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Doubleday, AH, The Victoria History of the County of Hertford, (1914), 50 54-5
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire, (1977), 241

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

End of official list entry

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