Sacombe House With Attached Service Blocks and Wall to East

Details

SACOMBE SACOMBE PARK TL 31 NW Sacombe 4/106 Sacombe House with 24.11.66 attached Service Blocks and Wall to E - II*

Country house, now offices and flats. 1803-6 for G. Caswall. Altered c.1835 for W. Gambier. Interior remodelled 1911 for Mrs. A.S. Hay. Yellow stock brick, tuck pointed. Stone dressings with some cement render. Flat roof on main block, slate roofs on service blocks. Neo-classical style. 11 x 9 bays. 2 storeys. Garden elevation: 3:5:3 with central hexastyle portico in antis. Giant Greek Doric cement rendered columns of c.1835 replacing original Corinthian order. Inside portico are ground floor French windows, first floor glazing bar sashes, coffered soffit. Flanking 3 bay full height bows, recessed sashes with gauged brick flat arched heads, stone sills, tall on ground floor with glazing bars. Continuous stone cornice to brick parapet, built 1911 to replace earlier attic storey, balustraded panels to centre, stone capping. 4 tall axial stacks with stone cornices. Entrance front is left return from garden, 2:5:2 breaking forward to centre, glazing bar sashes, blind to 2 right bays and to bays 4 and 6 on first floor. Tooled stone plinth, plat band, cornice to brick parapet, balustraded panels to centre. On central 3 bays is c.1835 tetrastyle Greek Doric ashlar porch. Paired double doors, fielded and panelled with bay leaf frieze, semi-circular traceried fanlight all in a round headed reveal with a roll moulding, flanking tall sashes. Sun Fire Insurance Marker set over first floor central window. Right return from garden is 3:3:3 with central semi-circular bow with ground floor French windows, steps up to centre, elsewhere glazing bar sashes, stone plinth, plat band. Dummy windows to ground floor left, blind openings to first floor left bay. Rear elevation is 2:5:2 with inserted mezzanine and cellar to centre. Plainer with 2 light casements, central entrance in a round relieving arch. End bays project slightly with glazing bar sashes, plat band to right. Interior: 1911 remodelling follows original carefully, Corinthian pilasters in entrance hall with a segmental arch over a Doric screen to stair hall, cantilevered Imperial stair with gallery, iron railings. Segmental vault to oval lantern. Ground floor rooms have Neo-classical chimney pieces, cornices to coved ceilings. Secondary stair with moulded ramped wreathed handrail is also top lit. Some original fittings in kitchen. Service blocks are attached to rear right. 2 storeys. Extending from rear of main block is 9 bay service range, sashes, parapet, 2 cross axial stacks with stone cornices, c.1900 1 storey projection. 3 bay 1 storey block to left is former meat and game larders. A panelled door with a semi-circular fanlight, round-headed reveal. Blind openings. Hipped roof. Rear end of main service range is symmetrical 3:3:3 with kitchen flanked by larders and scullery. Taller kitchen with large sashes, blind panels above to coped parapet. Lantern on hipped roof, square base to round belfry with 4 arched panels, domical head with weathervane. Outer bays have narrow blind openings flanking windows. To service yard main service range is 2:3:2 breaking forward to centre with segmental headed relieving arches over entrance to right with a fanlight and glazing bar sashes, coped parapet. Extending from rear right of main block at right angles is a later C19 wall, 4m to 5m high. A doorway through has stone impost blocks and a gauged brick flat arched head. Enclosing third side of service yard are former dairy and laundry. Dairy is 12 bays, low 2 storeys, 4 doors, 3 windows and blind openings with blind panels above, stone coped parapet. Laundry is 5 bays 1 storey. 4 glazing bar sashes and entrance, Hipped roof. Wall from main block to dairy extends to E as a segmental curve for about 70m enclosing a formal garden. 2 openings with buttresses to rear. The present Sacombe House was preceded by a large medieval house which was demolished in 1783. In 1710 E. Rolt planned a rebuilding initially to have been by Vanbrugh but with a later design by Gibbs. The gardens were laid out by C. Bridgeman in 1715 with an embattled garden wall by Vanbrugh demolished late in the C18. A few traces of Bridgeman's work remain SE of the house. (VCH 1912: East Herts Archaeological Society Transactions, vol.10, pt.2, 1938, p.252: Pevsner 1977: P. Willis Charles Bridgeman, 1977: RCHM Typescript).

Listing NGR: TL3392618977

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

356214

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Willis, P, Charles Bridgeman, (1977)
East Hertfordshire Archaeological Society Transactions in East Hertfordshire Archaeological Society Transactions, Vol. 10, (1938), 252

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.