BROADWATER HUNDRED bishofshatfield 



brykke, having in the same very stately lodgynges with 

 roraes and offices to the same very necessary and 

 expedient, albeit in some places it ys oute of 

 reparaciones.' 



There can be no doubt, however, that the necessary 

 ' reparaciones ' were made for its royal occupancy, and 

 that when James I handed it over to the Earl of 

 Salisbury it was in good repair. This, however, did 

 not save it from destruction. The fashion of archi- 

 tecture had changed with the great national changes 

 entailed in the coming of the Tudors and the passing 

 of mediaeval life and thought, and accordingly Hatfield 

 Palace gave place to Hatfield House. 



The remnant of the old palace consists of one long 

 range, facing east and west, and a gate-house to the 

 north-west. Both are of brick, and the former is 

 roofed with tiles. The position of the destroyed north, 

 south and east wings can be traced in the sunk garden, 

 between the present forecourt and the remaining old 

 west wing. The roof of this west wing, which is of 

 open timber construction, runs in one range over the 

 hall and the great chamber over the kitchen and 

 butteries, but the divisions of the latter have been 

 removed, and between the solar and the kitchen the 

 building is open from floor to roof and is fitted as 

 stables. The kitchen has been divided into harness 

 rooms and a laundry, but at the other end the solar 

 remains, though the rooms beneath it have been sub- 

 divided by partitions. 



The eastern exterior has suffered much from restora- 

 tion and alteration. Its two extremities, which were 

 originally interior to the north and south wings, 

 were refaced in the 17th century, when those wings 

 were destroyed. The windows are practically new, 

 and the buttresses, nine in number on this, as on the 

 west, side, are 19th-century additions. The central 

 projecting porch, which forms a small tower of three 

 stages, still retains its original doorway, which is 

 moulded and has a four-centred head, but it is disused, 

 and the floors of the stages have been removed. 



The west side is in somewhat better condition, but 

 here also the windows are completely restored, and 

 the elevation of the hall is denuded of the projecting 

 bays of a window and a fireplace shown in the old 

 plan. Straight joints in the wall indicate their exact 

 position. The central porch forms a tower, as on 

 the east side, but here it is more massive. It has 

 thicker walls, bold angle buttresses and a four-centred 

 doorway of two moulded orders. The tower is of 

 three stages and is decorated with patterns of black 

 bricks, a brick corbel-table, and a plain parapet 

 carried on a small arcade of semicircular arches, 

 above which rise octagonal chimney-shafts from the 

 fireplaces in each stage, The rooms are in good 

 preservation and are lighted by small brick window 

 openings with four-centred heads under square labels. 

 In the north-east angle, formed by the tower and 

 the wall of the wing, is a newel-turret showing three 



The north and south ends of the west side are both 

 gabled. The gable at the kitchen end appears to 

 have been rebuilt, and all the windows are either 

 modern or restored, but at the south, or solar, end 

 little modification has taken place. The gable here 

 is stepped and coped and terminates in a twisted 

 chimney shaft. The ground floor door and windows 

 appear to be a medley of old material reset and 

 altogether new work. The first floor windows are 



original, though restored, the middle one being a 

 three-light window with pointed heads under a four- 

 centred main head having two orders and a label, all in 

 moulded brick. This window is flanked by single 

 lights like those of the porch. 



The south end wall of the wing is blind. The 

 north end has a stepped gable, and is marked by the 

 small extension through which runs the archway, 

 formerly to the kitchen court. This arch is four- 

 centred, of two moulded orders, and the windows are 

 like those of the rest of the building. The roof ridge 

 is rather lower than that of the main building. 



Internally the chief feature of the building is the 

 continuous open timber roof of eleven bays, without 

 variation of detail, which covers that portion of the 

 wing formerly occupied by the hall and great upper 

 chamber. The trusses rest on carved stone corbels, 

 probably early 19th-century imitations of the originals, 

 and have moulded arched braces and short cambered 

 collars, with cross -trussing above them. The wall- 

 plates and purlins are moulded, and from them rise 

 short nearly vertical struts to each rafter. Between 

 the trusses are ogee-shaped wind-braces, rising from 

 immediately above the meeting level of the small 

 struts with the rafters. 



The gate-house, standing at the north-west of the 

 west front, indicates the position of the north-west 

 angle of the old west forecourt. It now faces into the 

 High Street, and is a rectangular building of brick 

 with an archway running through it near the north 

 end. The porter's small room is to the north of this 

 archway, but to the south of the entrance the gate- 

 house has been converted into two cottages, which 

 have undergone much repair. On the east side is a 

 long shallow projection containing stairs and offices. 

 A few original windows still exist. They are of two 

 pointed lights, in moulded brick, but many, particularly 

 on the west side, have 17th-century wooden casement 

 frames ; some are modern. On the inner side the 

 entrance archway was altered from a four-centred to a 

 three-centred form. On the east side the wood lintel 

 is original. It is cambered, and has carved angle 

 brackets, so that the actual opening is four-centred. 

 Over the archway is a room on the walls of which is 

 a late 16th-century tempera painting, representing 



The present house stands on the west side of 

 the park on a gentle eminence close to the church 

 and to the east of the previous house. It is built of 

 red brick with stone dressings, and the roofs are partly 

 of lead and partly tiled. It is a particularly fine and 

 complete example of early 17th-century domestic 

 architecture, and its proportions, rather those of a 

 palace than a country house, afford scope for the 

 successful use of comparatively severe detail and 

 symmetrical massing to achieve a dignity only toned 

 to homeliness by the warm colouring of the material. 

 Constant care has been exercised to preserve the 

 character of the building, which, as originally erected 

 presented the same homogeneous aspect as at present! 

 It was begun by the Earl of Salisbury immediately 

 after the exchange of Theobalds with King James I had 

 be?n effected (see above), and was completed in 161 1 

 Although it has since undergone frequent repairs and 

 some internal alterations, and although in 1835 'he 

 west wing from the chapel wall to the south end was 

 completely gutted by fire, the general appearance of 

 the building remains unaltered, and in many cases old 



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