A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



an overhanging gable at each end, and the 'Plume of 

 Feathers' is an old red bn,k house on the opposite 

 side of the road. 



Wymondley Hall, now a farm-hou>e, the residence 

 of Mr. M. H. Foster, is a picturesque many-gabled 

 building, standing close to the railway where it crosses 

 the main road to Hitchin. There is nothing of 

 architectural interest inside the building, and modern 

 subdivisions of the rooms have destroyed all traces of 

 the original plan. The house appears to have been 

 erected during the early part of the 17th century, 

 and is built of thin z-in. bricks, with a good deal of 

 timber- framed work covered with plaster on the upper 



story. The principal front, which faces west, has six 

 gables, the two northernmost, however, being modern 

 additions. Of the two middle gables, one has a bay 

 window its whole height, the other having merely 

 a slightly projecting oriel on the upper story with 

 an entrance porch under. The south gable has a 

 projecting upper story, timber framed and plastered, 

 below which is a bay window, and up in the gable is 

 an oriel window finished with a small gable under 

 the main gable. The corresponding large gable at 

 the north end has a projecting bay continued up the 

 two stories and finished with a similar small gable. 

 All the roofe are tiled. The entrance door and 

 frame are original. The frame is moulded and square- 



headed, the mouldings having ornamental stops out- 

 side. Many of the features of this front, such as the 

 moulded door frame and the subsidiary gables over 

 the oriels and bays immediately underneath the main 

 gables, bear a close resemblance to those on the front 

 of Egerton House, Berkhampstead. The back of the 

 house is chiefly remarkable for the picturesque dis- 

 position of the chimneys. There are two stacks of 

 chimneys separated by a small projecting gable. 



The Priory farm-house, the property of Col. 

 Heathcote of Shephallbury and residence of Mrs. 

 Charles Sworder, stands about half a mile north of 

 the church on the site of part of the old Priory 

 buildings, some parts of which are 

 incorporated in the present house. 

 Chauncy, writing about the year 

 1 700, mentions the cloisters and 

 chapel which existed in his time, 

 but these have now almost dis- 

 appeared. The plan of the house 

 is not on the usual lines, due to the 

 positions of the old walls ; indeed, 

 it seems that the builder of the 

 dwelling-house merely surrounded a 

 part of the aisleless nave of the 

 priory church with an external wall. 

 The old thick 13th-century walling 

 has been a good deal cut about in 

 order to afford passages to the 

 different apartments, and some 

 arches which are said to exist in 

 the wall next the drawing room 

 and pantry, probably part of the 

 arcade of the north wall of the 

 cloister, have been built up. The 

 only arch now remaining is a por- 

 tion of one of the south windows of 

 the church over a doorway to the 

 bedroom above the drawing room, 

 and it appears to be in its original 

 position. The opening is 4 ft. 8 jn, 

 wide, and has a pointed arch of 

 13th-century date, with arch mould 

 consisting of two rolls with a deep 

 hollow between, resting on a de- 

 tached shaft with moulded capital. 

 It is of soft limestone or clunch, and 

 a portion of one side is hidden by a 

 later wall. The oldest portion of 

 the external wall is at the back or 

 east side of the house. It is built 

 mainly of clunch, and in the wall is 

 a doorway, now built up, with 

 splayed four-centred arch. This 

 wall may belong to the latter pare of the 1 6th century. 

 All the rest of the external walling is of brick, a good 

 deal of it refaced in modern times, but the older 

 parts, chiefly on the north side, are faced with the 

 original thin bricks rising about o.| in. to four courses. 

 On the north side are three equal gables, the windows 

 still retaining their old oak mullions and transoms. 

 Elsewhere the windows have been modernized. The 

 old chimneys consist of square shafts of brick set 

 nally, and probably belong to the early part of 

 7th century. The west front has been i 



the i 



modernized. Internally many of the rooms are lined 

 with oak moulded panelling of early 1 7th-century date, 

 and there is a small plain old stair in the north-east 



