If you think this information is inaccurate please e-mail corrections to Hertfordshire HER .

Summary

16th century hunting lodge, converted in the 18th century into a farmstead

Monument Types

• FARMHOUSE (Post Medieval - 1501 AD to 1900 AD)
• FARMSTEAD (Post Medieval - 1501 AD to 1900 AD)
• HUNTING LODGE (Post Medieval - 1501 AD to 1900 AD)

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 159944: THE ESSEX BARN AT HUNSDON LODGE FARM 3 METRES NORTH EAST OF THE BIG BLACK BARN
• Listed Building (II*) 159942: THE BIG BLACK BARN AT HUNSDON LODGE FARM 500 METRES ALONG TRACK
• Listed Building (II) 159943: BARN AT HUNSDON LODGE FARM ATTACHED TO SOUTH END OF THE BIG BLACK BARN

Full description

Hunsdon Lodge, 500m along a track beyond the east end of Drury Lane, was a royal Tudor hunting lodge (for the deer park, see [6551]). In the 18th century it became a farmstead, but the surviving buildings, which are a 'picturesque group of tarred farm buildings', include one (called the Big Black Barn) which is a 16th century lodging range, the 'remains of an early 2 storeys timber-framed house of exceptional size and quality' <1>. This was about 20m long and 8m wide, with timber posts 'of great size' and traces of upper windows and an upper ceiling/attic floor. It had 8 bays, but the alterations turned four bays into two wider ones, leaving one original bay at the south end and three at the north end. It is now a tall timber-framed and weatherboarded unaisled barn with steep tiled roof and double doors on the east side.

Attached to the south end is an unaisled five-bay barn facing west. This dates to the 18th century, a little-altered timber-framed and weatherboarded barn with a gabled projecting west porch and opposed double doors. A 20th century floor has been inserted inside the two bays at the south end. The porch is flanked by weatherboarded and slated lean-to stables <1>.

Just to the NE of the Big Black Barn is the Essex Barn, another 18th century addition. This is 'a good example of a late timber-framed barn, specifically designed for its purpose' <1>. It has six bays and is unaisled, facing south, with an off-centre projecting gabled porch flanked by a weatherboarded lean-to terminating in a low gabled cross-wing near the east corner. The roof was rebuilt in the early 19th century and is covered with slate. Above the lean-to is a continuous ventilation slot. A long shelter shed once extended south from the east end <1>.

'Hunsdon Lodge' is shown on the 1766 map <2>, implying that it was then still of some status. On the south side was an orchard. It is shown on the 1842 tithe map <3> with a substantial farmhouse to the west, and the barns ranged to the north and NE around a yard, with two ponds. The later 19th century OS maps <4, 5> show the orchard, and alterations in line with current agricultural practice including the shelter shed, long continuous north and west ranges, and division of the yard into compartments. By 1921 <6> the north range had gone, with new structures in the yard. The 1975 map <7> shows that the farmhouse and its outbuildings had been replaced with a new building to the SE, and Hunsdon Lodge was renamed Hunsdon Lodge Farm. In the later 20th century all the 19th century and later farm buildings were demolished.

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

<2> Dury & Andrews, 1766, A topographical map of Hartford-shire, from an actual survey… (Cartographic material). SHT3062.

<3> Tithe map and award, Hunsdon, 1842 (map) (Cartographic material). SHT1377.

<4> OS 25 inch map, 1st edition, 1880 (Cartographic material). SHT8116.

<5> OS 25 inch map, 2nd edition (1897-1901), 1898 (Cartographic material). SHT8113.

<6> OS 25 inch map, 3rd edition (1913-1925), 1921 (Cartographic material). SHT5271.

<7> OS 25 inch plan, post-war edition (1958-81), 1975 (Cartographic material). SHT8120.

Sources and further reading

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.