Hatfield Place

Details

TL 7811-7911, 12/64

HATFIELD PEVEREL,
LONDON ROAD (south side),
Hatfield Place

II*

Large house. 1791-5, by John Johnson for Colonel John Tyrell. Gault brick in
Flemish bond, with dressings of limestone and Coade stone, roofed with slate.
Double pile plan facing N, with 2 internal stacks at each side. Service wing
to right, connected by cellar storey. Connecting block c.1905 by George Sherrin
for Colonel Arkwright. Single-storey ballroom extension to left, mid-C19, and
mid-C19 porch to front. 2 storeys, attics and cellars. 3-window range of
sashes of 12 lights with gauged brick heads, the ground-floor windows recessed
in rusticated stone arches with Coade keystones of Flora and Pomona. The ground
floor is clad with rusticated stone, supporting 4 pairs of Coade pilasters with
defective foliate capitals, Coade frieze with paterae, and parapet with turned
balustrade. Double 3-panel doors with plain fanlight in mid-C19 stone and brick
porch with rusticated quoins and enriched parapet. The side walls rise above
parapet level to form a mansard roof. A small extension to the right of the
main elevation has one sash of 12 lights on the ground floor, 2 sashes of 3 + 6
lights on the first floor with plaster aprons, and a half-glazed door with side
lights, stone pilasters and frieze. On the S (garden) elevation, cast iron
canopy in 5 bays, verandah and steps incorporating the initials WMT, for William
Michael Tufnell, who purchased the property in 1847 and died in 1905.

The
INTERIOR retains most of the original Johnson decor; the ballroom and front
extension are decorated in similar style. Oval staircase hall, doorways at both
ends with semi-elliptical arches. Moulded tread ends, wreathed handrail,
elegant wrought iron scrolled and foliate balusters with honeysuckle terminals
of non-ferrous metal. Groined passage to rear with plaster figures and
medallion in low relief. Drawing room (originally described as 'dining
parlour') with marble chimney-piece and medallion of Orpheus. Smaller drawing
room with 3 medallions. Original plaster friezes of sphinxes, lyres and
scrollwork, with egg-and-dark, bayleaf and honeysuckle borders. 'Domical brick
vault' below staircase hall, described as such in original accounts. This is
the best documented of Johnson's Essex houses; the building accounts are in
Essex Record Office (D/DKe F4). It was executed by John Johnson junior, Joseph
Andrews and William Horsfall to a design by John Johnson senior, having close
similarities inside and out to his earlier Holcombe House (now called St. Mary's
Abbey), Mill-Hill, London NW7 (Nancy Briggs, unpublished lecture to the Georgian
Group, 1983, and Woolverstone Hall, Some Reflections on the Domestic
Architecture of John Johnson, 1732-1814, Proc. Suffolk Institute of Archaeology
and History, XXXIV, 1977, 59-64).


Listing NGR: TL7852411443

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

115405

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History in Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History, Vol. 34, (1977), 59-64

End of official list entry

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