Description

TL 4614 HIGH WYCH HIGH WYCH ROAD
(east side)
High Wych Village

16/9 High Wych Grange
-

GV II

Vicarage, now a house. 1862 (information from owner) by G E
Pritchett (1824-1912) (Builder 8.3.1912 p 283). Built as
Vicarage for Rev H F Johnson in newly-created parish. Sold in
1929 and renamed. In scholarly Gothic style facing W. Designed
to give the effect of a tall medieval hall-house with 2 storey
gabled cross-wings at each end. Unusually for Hertfordshire,
built of stone. Limestone dressings with coursed, squared,
rubble walling. White brick for service areas at NE, for upper
parts of decorative chimneys, and for single storey outbuildings
extending to rear (E). Very steep tiled gabled roof, with large
timberframed 'louvre', tiled and bargeboarded rising above centre
of hall range with small windows in sides. W front has a single
storey projecting entrance porch in ashlar with heavy double
doors under a segmental arch up 4 steps. This porch is at the S
end of the hall range and has a moulded string and offset plinth
corresponding to those of the hall. This has a tall mullioned
and transomed 3-light stone window, rising through 2 storeys with
a relieving arch above its rectangular head. The righthand cross
wing has heavy bargeboards with trefoil cusped holes, and a large
3-light stone mullioned and transomed window on each floor. The
lefthand cross-wing is more elaborate corresponding to the
'parlour wing' of a medieval hall-house. It has a different
pattern of cusping on its heavy pierced bargeboards, a 3-light
mullioned and transomed window on the upper floor, but a hipped
roofed projecting stone square bay on the Ground floor, with a 3-
light mullioned and transomed window and corresponding side
lights. Picturesque irregular chimneys top the side walls of the
cross wings, that on the N having stepped corbelling at its base
with a central raised strip and tumbled brickwork in the upper
part of the shaft. The garden front faces S, having 1-light and
2-light mullioned windows, with relieving arches over, on the
upper floor, and a pair of long 4-light windowed projecting
hipped roofed stone bays on the Ground floor. They flank a
recessed pointed niche enclosed by a timber mullioned and
transomed screen with French doors and 3 stone steps down to
garden. Servants' parts in white brick with flat pointed arches,
overlooking E service yard with single storey steep tile roofed
gabled outbuildings with similar details extending in L-shape to
E of house. Interior of house has high ceilings, and plaster
cornices characterised by wide plain chamfers flanked by smaller
mouldings on wall and ceiling. A staircase rises in the W 'hall
range' lit by the tall window. A striking C19 stone house
designed by Pritchett giving the impression of a large medieval
hall-house, for a wealthy vicar. An essential element in the
group of new parish buildings erected by Pritchett for Rev
Johnson 1860-62.

Listing NGR: TL4645814011

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26579121

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

• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas