Description

TEWIN QUEEN HOO LANE
TL 21 NE
(Southeast side)
Queen Hoo Hall
3/157
20.10.52
II*
GV
Country house. c.1570-85, probably for J. Smyth. Minor c.1800 and C20
alterations. Red brick, English bond, with black brick diapering. Cement
rendered dressings. Steeply pitched tiled roof. Traditional 3 room plan
in a rectangle with 2 full height projecting 'prospect tower' bay
windows, staircase wing to rear. 2 storeys attic and cellar. 4 window
front. Entrance in screens passage position to right of hail, plank and
muntin door, timber jambs and lintel without original porch. Hall has 6
light mullion and transom casements with lattice lights and ovolo moulded
surrounds, 1 on ground floor, 2 on first floor, a small blocked opening
with moulded brick surround on ground floor near lower end of hall.
Moulded cement rendered plinth. Diamond brick diapering on first floor.
Slight raising to swept out eaves. Projecting bay window to left or
parlour end has a later entrance with a chamfered 4 centred arched head.
First floor 6 light window as in hall, 3 light mullioned attic window.
Shaped kneelers to moulded brick gable parapet with 3 original
honeycombed finials. Bay window at lower end is similar with 6 lights on
ground floor. Left gable end has ground floor and first floor 6 light
mullion and transom windows, 2 lights in attic, black brick diapering in
gable with shaped kneelers to tumbled in brick parapet. Right gable end
has an inserted plank door, 3 lights on ground floor, first floor cross
casement, 2 lights in attic, kneelers to brick parapet. To rear staircase
wing behind screens passage and 3 large external stacks with hearths to
each room. Stair wing has two 2 light casements, a blocked opening with
a moulded brick surround and a hipped roof. Entrance in right return.
Hall stack adjoins stair wing with a tiled offset above eaves, base
tapers up to paired diagonal shafts with oversailing caps. Parlour stack
is similar with only 1 offset to right. Kitchen stack is larger with 3
diagonal shafts and is incorporated into c.1800 scullery outshut with a
catslide roof, C20 dormer. To rear of this and extending to left is 1
storey C20 outbuilding with a hipped roof. Interior: on ground and first
floor hall and parlour stone fireplaces have ovolo moulded depressed
Tudor arches, splayed at springings, moulded square heads. Stop chamfered
timber lintel to larger kitchen fireplace. Partition walls have panel
framing of large scantling, stop chamfered binding beams, staircase with
framed central newel with cupboards, transitional between solid newel
and open well, tenoned purlin roof. On first floor in room over parlour
are late C16 wall paintings, an Old Testament scene, probably Soloman
worshipping False Gods, and decorative frieze of foliage, scroll
ornamented panels and sinopia work. J. Strutt's Queenhoo Hall, a
Romance completed by Walter Scott in 1808 was set here. (East Herts
Archaeological Society Transactions, 1903, vol.2, pt.2, pl.78: VCH 1908:
RCHM 1910: Country Life, 15/3/62, p.594: Pevsner 1977: RCHM Typescript).

Listing NGR: TL2787416129

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17542969

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas