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Summary

Mid 16th century building which may have been used as a banqueting house for Hadham Hall, or related to the walled vineyard

Monument Types

• BANQUETING HOUSE? (Post Medieval - 1501 AD to 1900 AD)
• CARRIAGE HOUSE? (Post Medieval - 1501 AD to 1900 AD)
• TIMBER FRAMED BUILDING (Post Medieval - 1501 AD to 1900 AD)

Associated Events

• Building assessment of Stewards Cottage, Hadham Hall, Little Hadham, 2003 (Ref: 1471)
• Historic building recording of Stewards Cottage, Hadham Hall, Little Hadham, 2006 (Ref: AS 747)
• Monitoring at Stewards Cottage, Hadham Hall, Little Hadham, 2015 (Ref: N)

Protected Status

• Area of Archaeological Significance 105
• Listed Building (II) 11/4
• Listed Building (II) 395676: THE OLD COTTAGE AT HADHAM HALL 70 METRES EAST NORTH EAST OF HALL

Full description

Stewards Cottage is a two-storey building with a thatched roof. It originally formed the cross-wing to an open hall which was demolished during the 17th century. The walls to the west and north were refaced in brick <2>.
Assessment of the building <3> found no evidence that it was the cross wing of a hall house, although no other function is suggested by the structure, and the standard of workmanship was high. It was built in timber framing in the mid 16th century, a reworked window aperture and a ground floor fireplace appearing to be original. Surviving large fireplaces suggest that it was used as a banqueting hall. In the late 16th/17th century it was given a brick frontage, possibly at the same time as the building of Hadham Hall [1981] itself in brick in 1572. The single-storey south end may have been added in the 17th century, in rudimentary framing and possibly to act as a carriage house to the main part, which became a homestead. This may have been when the Hall was divided into three farmhouses in 1668. The cottage was refurbished in the early 19th century and the south end possibly turned into an animal shelter.
It is shown on Minet's plan <6, 7> as 'Outbuilding', and stood at the west end of the walled vineyard (to which it may relate). It was otherwise isolated from other known buildings within the high-status layout at Hadham Hall. Its function is uncertain, but is unlikely to have been mundane.

Construction of a garden building just beyond the chimney stack in 2015 involved shallow groundworks, which revealed only 20th century made ground <8>.

<1> Listed Buildings description (Digital archive). SHT6690.

<2> Smith, J T, 1993, Hertfordshire houses: selective inventory (Bibliographic reference). SHT16660.

<3> Wotherspoon, Melissa, et al, 2003, Stewards Cottage, Hadham Hall, Little Hadham, Herts: historic building assessment & archaeological evaluation, RNO 1448 (Report). SHT6817.

<4> Goldsmith, Amy, et al, 2006, Stewards Cottage, Hadham Hall, Little Hadham, Herts: historic building recording, RNO 1766 (Report). SHT16846.

<5> Planning application documents, 2004 (Graphic material). SHT8908.

<6> Minet, William, 1914, Hadham Hall and the manor of Baudes alias Hadham Parva in the county of Hertfordshire (Bibliographic reference). SHT9570.

<7> Cooper-Reade, Hester, 1992, Hadham Hall, Little Hadham, Hertfordshire: an initial archaeological evaluation, RNO 394, Fig.1 (Report). SHT9432.

<8> Finn, Claire, 2015, Archaeological observation, investigation and recording at Stewards Cottage, Hadham hall, Little Hadham, Hertfordshire, October 2015, RNO 3893 (Report). SHT18148.

Sources and further reading

Related records

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