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Summary

Post-medieval farmstead with probable medieval origins, its farmhouse rebuilt in the early-mid 19th century; known as Hyde House from the late 19th century

Monument Types

• DITCH? (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD to 1900 AD)
• WALL? (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD to 1900 AD)
• FARMHOUSE (Post Medieval - 1501 AD to 1900 AD)
• FARMSTEAD (Post Medieval - 1501 AD to 1900 AD)

Associated Events

• Evaluation at Hyde House, Hollybush Lane, Welwyn Garden City, 2013 (Ref: HHHH13)

Full description

Hyde Farm is shown on the 1880 OS map <1> as an isolated farmstead on the east side of the lane. The farmhouse, set back from the road, had a garden to the south and ranges of farm buildings to the north, around a rectangular yard which had a pump towards the SE corner. The OS mapping shows that by 1898 <2> it was called Hyde House, and the hamlet of Hatfield Hyde was beginning to grow; the change of name appears to have happened when a new church (Hyde Chapel, now St Mary Magdalene's church) [18575] was built on its south side. Hyde House seems to have survived until c.1970. It had long since ceased to be a farmstead.
Hyde House was regarded as the 'manor house' of Hatfield Hyde (one of a series of medieval estates with the suffix '-hyde' in the area), a view reinforced by the building of the church. The Kendall family, who lived in Hyde House in the 19th and early 20th centuries, were active local benefactors. The house was sold in 1953 to the council for use as a social club, although it was also used as a parish hall and Sunday school until eventually it was declared unsafe and demolished <3>.
The 19th century farmstead did have earlier predecessors. Buildings are shown here on the 1766 map <6> and the house itself on the 1838 tithe map <7>, although whether the buildings shown on the 1766 map represent Hyde Farm is unclear <4>. The farmhouse foundations were revealed in evaluation trenches in 2013 and the bricks were 'no earlier than Victorian'. But this house may have succeeded and truncated the evidence for an older building, represented by a linear feature which was either a foundation trench or a ditch. This feature contained large flint nodules, degraded red brick and pegtile fragments, and two body sherds of late 15th-16th century red earthenware, as well as two residual sherds of medieval pottery (one of South Herts greyware, 12th-14th century, and the other an earlier fabric, 11th-early 12th century). A flint and gravel levelling layer nearer the road contained degraded red brick fragments and a rim sherd from a late 16th-17th century red earthenware jar with internal brown glaze. Truncation of the natural clay here, followed by the levelling layer, may relate to a building shown to the NW on the tithe map and may be one of those shown on the 1766 map; it was demolished between 1838 and 1880 <5>.

Hatfield Hyde was 'probably the home of' William de Hida, documented in 1220 <8>; the implication is that he lived here at Hyde Farm.

<1> OS 25 inch map, 1st edition, 1878-80 (Cartographic material). SHT8116.

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

<3> <www.st-mary-magdalene.org.uk>, (Accessed 29 Jan 2013) (Digital archive). SHT7689.

<4> Garwood, Adam, 2013, Land at Hyde House, Hollybush Lane, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 4JS: an archaeological desk-based assessment, RNO 3207 (Report). SHT7783.

<5> Woolhouse, Tom, Hyde House, Hollybush lane, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, AL7 4JS: an archaeological evaluation, RNO 3208 (Report). SHT7784.

<6> Dury & Andrews, 1766, A topographical map of Hartford-shire, from an actual survey… (Cartographic material). SHT3062.

<7> Tithe map and award, Hatfield, 1838 (map) (Cartographic material). SHT1377.

<8> Gover, J E B, Mawer, Allen, & Stenton, F M, 1938, The place-names of Hertfordshire, - p129 (Bibliographic reference). SHT3417.

Sources and further reading

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