Details
SACOMBE SACOMBE PARK
TL 31 NW
Sacombe
4/106
Sacombe House with
24.11.66
attached Service Blocks
and Wall to E
- II*
Country house, now offices and flats. 1803-6 for G. Caswall. Altered
c.1835 for W. Gambier. Interior remodelled 1911 for Mrs. A.S. Hay.
Yellow stock brick, tuck pointed. Stone dressings with some cement
render. Flat roof on main block, slate roofs on service blocks.
Neo-classical style. 11 x 9 bays. 2 storeys. Garden elevation: 3:5:3
with central hexastyle portico in antis. Giant Greek Doric cement
rendered columns of c.1835 replacing original Corinthian order. Inside
portico are ground floor French windows, first floor glazing bar sashes,
coffered soffit. Flanking 3 bay full height bows, recessed sashes with
gauged brick flat arched heads, stone sills, tall on ground floor with
glazing bars. Continuous stone cornice to brick parapet, built 1911 to
replace earlier attic storey, balustraded panels to centre, stone
capping. 4 tall axial stacks with stone cornices. Entrance front is left
return from garden, 2:5:2 breaking forward to centre, glazing bar
sashes, blind to 2 right bays and to bays 4 and 6 on first floor. Tooled
stone plinth, plat band, cornice to brick parapet, balustraded panels to
centre. On central 3 bays is c.1835 tetrastyle Greek Doric ashlar
porch. Paired double doors, fielded and panelled with bay leaf frieze,
semi-circular traceried fanlight all in a round headed reveal with a
roll moulding, flanking tall sashes. Sun Fire Insurance Marker set over
first floor central window. Right return from garden is 3:3:3 with
central semi-circular bow with ground floor French windows, steps up to
centre, elsewhere glazing bar sashes, stone plinth, plat band. Dummy
windows to ground floor left, blind openings to first floor left bay.
Rear elevation is 2:5:2 with inserted mezzanine and cellar to centre.
Plainer with 2 light casements, central entrance in a round relieving
arch. End bays project slightly with glazing bar sashes, plat band to
right. Interior: 1911 remodelling follows original carefully, Corinthian
pilasters in entrance hall with a segmental arch over a Doric screen to
stair hall, cantilevered Imperial stair with gallery, iron railings.
Segmental vault to oval lantern. Ground floor rooms have Neo-classical
chimney pieces, cornices to coved ceilings. Secondary stair with moulded
ramped wreathed handrail is also top lit. Some original fittings in
kitchen. Service blocks are attached to rear right. 2 storeys. Extending
from rear of main block is 9 bay service range, sashes, parapet, 2 cross
axial stacks with stone cornices, c.1900 1 storey projection. 3 bay 1
storey block to left is former meat and game larders. A panelled door
with a semi-circular fanlight, round-headed reveal. Blind openings.
Hipped roof. Rear end of main service range is symmetrical 3:3:3 with
kitchen flanked by larders and scullery. Taller kitchen with large
sashes, blind panels above to coped parapet. Lantern on hipped roof,
square base to round belfry with 4 arched panels, domical head with
weathervane. Outer bays have narrow blind openings flanking windows. To
service yard main service range is 2:3:2 breaking forward to centre with
segmental headed relieving arches over entrance to right with a fanlight
and glazing bar sashes, coped parapet. Extending from rear right of main
block at right angles is a later C19 wall, 4m to 5m high. A doorway
through has stone impost blocks and a gauged brick flat arched head.
Enclosing third side of service yard are former dairy and laundry. Dairy
is 12 bays, low 2 storeys, 4 doors, 3 windows and blind openings with
blind panels above, stone coped parapet. Laundry is 5 bays 1 storey. 4
glazing bar sashes and entrance, Hipped roof. Wall from main block to
dairy extends to E as a segmental curve for about 70m enclosing a formal
garden. 2 openings with buttresses to rear. The present Sacombe House
was preceded by a large medieval house which was demolished in 1783. In
1710 E. Rolt planned a rebuilding initially to have been by Vanbrugh but
with a later design by Gibbs. The gardens were laid out by C. Bridgeman
in 1715 with an embattled garden wall by Vanbrugh demolished late in the
C18. A few traces of Bridgeman's work remain SE of the house. (VCH 1912:
East Herts Archaeological Society Transactions, vol.10, pt.2, 1938,
p.252: Pevsner 1977: P. Willis Charles Bridgeman, 1977: RCHM Typescript).
Listing NGR: TL3392618977
