A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



transverse partitions, is now used for shops, whilst the 

 upper floor, which formed the hall 48 ft. by I 7 ft., 

 with a line open timbered roof, now ceiled, is 

 divided into rooms. Four trusses of this roof still 

 remain in position. They are of oak and have 

 moulded wall-posts with moulded capitals and bases, 

 wall -plates and purlins, cambered tie-beams and 

 queen posts, with curved spandrel pieces and wind- 

 braces. The timbered mullioned windows have 

 apparently been renewed, as has also a great part of 

 the outer walls. At the apex of each of the two 

 gables are terra-cotta figures of a man on horseback, 

 which have been copied from the originals still 

 remaining in one of the shops. 



On the east side of Bancroft is a large 15th- 

 century house 18 of timber and plaster, with a tiled 



three and numbered 86, 87, 88 Bancroft, standi a little 

 tothesouth. It was much altered in the 19th century, 

 and has now a timber frame rilled in different parti 

 with plaster, rough-cast, weather- boards and brickwork. 

 It is L-shaped in plan with a hall of four bays about 

 11 ft. each and 20 ft. span, facing the street. The 

 solar wing lies to the north and has an archway with 

 a room over. The upper story projects and has 

 a gable at each end with a modern bay-window 

 between them. At the north end of the hall is a 

 panelled canopy of a dais divided into square pant Is 

 by ogee-moulded ribs with bosses at the junctions 

 which are now lost. There is some ^th-century 

 panelling in the solar, and at the back are some old 

 buildings, probably of the same date as the house. 

 Numbers 89 and 90 at one time apparently formed 



View in Bancroft, H 



roof. It is L-shaped in plan with a hall in the main 

 wing facing the street. To the north was a solar 

 wing, beyond which was a high archway. During 

 the latter half of the 1 6th century an upper story 

 was formed in the hall by the insertion of a floor 

 projecting on the west front and a gable built at the 

 north end, the roof being raised to give additional 

 height. At the same time a chimney-stack was 

 added at the north end. Nothing beyond one tie- 

 beam of the oaken hall roof now remains, with 

 mortise holes for curved angle brackets. A little 

 further south is the 'Hermitage,' now a portion of 

 the residence of Mr. Frederic Seebohm, LL.D., 

 which mainly consisted of two houses converted into 

 one in the 1 8th century with additions of that time. 

 Another large 15th-century house, now divided into 



u It it now divided into two and numbered 8j and 84. 



one house of a similar type, but were very much 

 altered and refronted in the 1 8th century. Portmill 

 Lane branches off here to Queen Street. A little 

 way down is the ' Grange,' a 1 7th-century house 

 much altered in the neat century. Beyond Portmill 

 Lane stands the church. Lower down, on the north- 

 east corner of the market-place, to the south of the 

 church, are the remains of a 15th-century house of 

 the court-yard plan, now used as a dwell ing-hou^e 

 and shops. The east wing was rebuilt in the 1 7th 

 century and altered in the 18th centary.but thewest 

 wing of the original building remains. The over- 

 hanging gatehouse, with an entrance archway having 

 heavy moulded timbers with curved brackets, still 

 exists. Traces of the north wing have been dis- 

 covered, but the south wing has been entirely 

 destroyed. Sun Street contains on its eastern side 

 several houses of the 1 7th century and earlier ; they 



