Pishiobury Park Mansion and Attached Offices and Garden Walls and Norman Gateway

Details

PISHIOBURY DRIVE 1. 5253 (East End) 6.6.52 Pishiobury Park Mansion and attached offices (formerly listed as _ Pishiobury Park and outbuildings) and garden TL 480 134:6/29 walls with Norman gateway II* GV 2. Probably 1580-90 for Sir Walter Mildmay. Brick courtyard house, altered internally and possibly refaced for Sir Thomas Hewitt in 1662. Remodelled after fire by James Wyatt 1782-3 in Gothic Revival style for Jeremiah Milles: Offices C18/C19. Much interior detail renewed probably c.1904 (dated rainwater head). Red brick with stucco details and slate roof behind crenellated parapet. C16/C17 brickwork survives in faces of projecting corners. Elsewhere,fine jointed Flemish bond brickwork of c.1783. A square house of 2 1/2 storeys with symmetrical 5 window fronts to W (entrance), N and E. Offices and walled garden attached on S with 2 courtyards of outbuildings and walled kitchen garden extending to S. The W front follows the arrangement in an engraving of c.1700 in Chauncy, with projecting end bays inset from the angles. The Gd floor sash windows have 4 centred arched heads, those in the end bays under a coved, rubbed brick arch, and all topped by moulded stucco labels. 1st floor and attic sash windows have stucco hood moulds. Central porch stuccoed and crenellated has 4 centred arch and door. Door flanked by lancets. N front has broad outer bays divided by pilasters from 3 window centre. Windows as W front but Gd floor outer windows have side lancets under same arch, like front door. E (garden) front has same fenestration but 3 central bays have crenellated pediment. Interior of entrance hall has late C16 small panelled scratch moulded oak panelling. Elizabethan square courtyard roofed over as high central stair hall. Circular skylight in coved ceiling. Upper part of hall has cornice and continuous unenclosed frieze, probably late C18, of stucco medallions, oval and rectangular alternately, with husk swags. Cantilevered stair in 2 flights along S and E walls rises to 1st floor gallery. Stair retains Wyatt's wrought iron balustrade with honeysuckle medallions. Lower part of hall remodelled in early C20 with neo-classical frieze and exotic very fine late C18 carved marble fire surround with dancing nymphs at sides and a central cupid. Central E room most important interior with full height late C16 mitred oak panelling (said by RCHM (1911) to be from N room of W front). Larger panels between windows probably c.1662. Late C16 chimneypiece is the most important internal feature. Stone fire surround with Ionic pilasters and medallioned frieze, framed by oak fluted Ionic pilasters on pedestals, supporting a strapwork ovolo cornice. Above is a triple arched overmantle with fluted Corinthian colonnettes supporting consoles, frieze and cornice. Main room on N front Gd floor is late C18, the walls divided into large panels by raised reeded mouldings with paterae at the corners. Marble fireplace carved with musical instruments. N room of W front lacks C16 oak panelled dado noted by RCHM (1911) but retains fine late C16 stone fire surround carved with grotesque animals and acanthus foliage and Elizabethan scratch moulded oak door. Round headed arch to servants' stair has similar moulding to porch, so stair may be by Wyatt. Adjoining the house on the S are the usual offices grouped round a small court or light well. On the W of this is a high single storey kitchen lit by a central C18 window flanked by sunk panels. The lower part of the kitchen W wall is in C17 brick. On the SW is a late C18 brick octagonal food store with slate roof and octagonal louvre. On the E of the court a c.1783, 2 window block with rubbed brick arches, extended upward and altered internally probably in C19. It is joined to house by a diagonal 1 window bay where the former sash window with rubbed brick arch has been replaced by a French window. Adjoining the SE corner of the house is the walled garden showing 3 periods of brickwork about equal in height, being late C16, mid C17 and late C18. On the N side,entrance is by the Norman Gateway, a stucco Norman Revival gateway, presumably mid C19, with shafts and scalloped capitals, chevron and diapered arches, and Celtic interlace tympanum. Grounds, lake and planting said to be by Capability Brown. An historic brick Elizabethan courtyard house retaining some fine interior features remodelled by Wyatt. The crenellated exterior presents an attractive combination of brick and stucco. A small number of opening shapes and moulding profiles have been deployed in a way both varied and unified. It shows the restrained early phase of Wyatt's Gothic work, as well as C18 Gothic Revival at its best. (RCHM (1911) 203-4: Pevsner 2nd Rev Ed(1977) 271: RCHM Typescript).

Listing NGR: TL4808213412

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

160836

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

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

Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 21 Hertfordshire,
Inventory of the Historical Monuments of Hertfordshire, (1910)

End of official list entry

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