Exceptional country house with ancillary accommodation, equestrian facilities and significant outbuildings.

Description

The Property
Lower Farm is a wonderful country house, which has undergone a signification program of modernisation over recent years and now represents a substantial family home with the added advantage of integral secondary accommodation, if one requires additional living space for an au-pair or relative.

Whilst Lower Farm has been carefully and sympathetically brought up to modern day living expectations, it still retains many incredible features of bygone years, particularly the plethora of exposed wall and ceiling timbers.

As one will note from the floor plans, Lower Farm offers nearly 5,000 sqft of living space over three floors including five lovely reception rooms and four double bedrooms on the first floor.

Outside
Lower Farm is approached through an automated five bar gate and over a large gravel driveway which offers parking for numerous cars and other vehicles. The mature gardens that flank the house on two sides are fabulous and offer a haven for wildlife including an established pond.

Adjacent to the house is a significant range of workshops, the larger of the three sections being originally built as a hanger to accommodate a helicopter. There is a further detached barn which offers excellent storage facilities.

Equestrian
For those with an equestrian interest, there is a stable yard with large concrete apron, where six loose boxes, tack and hay barns can be found. There is an all-weather floodlit arena and three principal paddocks to the west of the property.

Schooling
A wide selection of highly renowned schools are also in the locality and include Queenswood Girls School and Lochinver House Boys, Stormont, Dame Alice Owen, Haileybury and Haberdashers Askes schools for boys and girls.

Brief history
Lower Farm is in North Mymms Parish which is mentioned in the Domesday book. There may well have been an earlier building on the site but Lower Bell Bar Farm as it was then called, is reputed to be the oldest existing building in the Parish of North Mymms. It was built in stages from about 1520, these can be dated from their construction. The farm’s land holding then consisted of some 150 acres. The house was almost certainly here during the occupancy of Hatfield Palace by both Elizabeth 1st and Mary Queen of Scots.

Lower Farm is unusual for Tudor constructions in that the room heights are greater than those usually found in common dwellings from this period; this has led to speculation that the house was built either for an illegitimate offspring of a local landowner, or for his mistress. This could account for the quality of the house and its unusually high ceilings.

The oldest part of the building is the East range (currently the
front of the house) was built with what were probably two
shared fireplaces. In about 1540 the South Range was added
comprising the present two floors and a now demolished brew
house. Dating from this time the ground floor room has a fine
Inglenook fireplace with a bread oven and an original oak door
with wooden lock. The iron hooks in the ceiling beams leads one
to surmise that this room was originally the kitchen.

The South range shows a better construction than the later addition of West range dating from about 1600, when the infill was added to provide four additional unheated rooms. There is still evidence in the timbers of carpenter’s runes in many of the rooms and the presence of additional access to the upper floors.

In the early 18th century the building became a droving Inn – “The Sign of the Swan”. During renovation evidence was found of hammock hooks and candle wax in the attic rooms which were likely to have been used to accommodate drovers on the road to Smithfield while the “gentry” would probably have had the self-contained three room suite on the first floor.

Easements, Wayleaves and Rights of Way
The property is offered for sale subject to any public or private rights of way and all easements and wayleaves, whether referred to in these particulars or not.

Location

Approx. mileages:

Hertford – 6.8 miles, Hatfield - 1.4 miles, Old Welwyn Village - 5.6 miles, Hitchin - 16 miles, Harpenden - 9.9 miles, St Albans - 8.5 miles, Hertford North station - 6 miles, Welwyn Garden City station - 2.1 miles, Hatfield station - 1.2 miles, London Luton airport - 14.1 miles

Square Footage: 4,994 sq ft


Acreage: 5.46 Acres