Description

HERTFORD

TL3212NW COWBRIDGE
817-1/16/49 (South side)
12/04/73 No.7

GV II

Includes: Nos.2-8 DIMSDALE STREET.
House, subsequently public house, now motor cycle retail
showrooms, service area, stores and offices (incorporating Nos
2 & 4 Dimsdale Street, and former residential properties Nos 6
& 8 Dimsdale Street. C17 (No.7 Cowbridge); C15 (former Nos 2 &
4 Dimsdale Street); C18 (former Nos 6 & 8 Dimsdale Street);
all with C19 and C20 alterations. Timber-framed, plastered,
pebbledashed and colourwashed, old tile roofs.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and attics (No.7) and 2 storey. No.7
originally had lobby entry plan, with large 2 bay room at
front to left. No.7 has jettied gable facing street, deep
eaves cornice, and 2 three-light casement dormers with
plastered cheeks. Moulded cornice and hipped tiled roofs on
left-hand (east) side. Central red brick chimneystack with 3
octagonal shafts above brick base with bands (restored 1970s).
Former Nos 2 & 4 Dimsdale Street has gabled roof facing
Dimsdale Street (east) frontage; former Nos 6 & 8 Dimsdale
Street has old tiled roof, with yellow brick stack and
external chimney breast at left and red brick stack at right
above party wall with former No.2.
Cowbridge frontage has 1 nearly flush-set 16-pane sash window
on first floor and 1 flush-set three-light casement in attic
gable. Early C20 shopfront to ground floor, with colourwashed
brick piers, continuous fascia with cut profiled consoles at
ends, and later three light timber-framed display window.
Dimsdale Street (east) frontage of No.7 has 1 three-light
casement at left and 1 flush-set 16-pane sash window at right
on first floor. Ground floor with C20 glazed door at right in
lengthened void of former window, and C20 four-light
timber-framed display window at left on ground floor. Former
Nos 2 & 4 Dimsdale Street has gable projecting forward, blank
above C20 five-light timber-framed display window on ground
floor and a C20 two-light casement window on return (north)
flank at first floor. Former Nos 6 & 8 Dimsdale Street has 2
two-light timber casements on first floor, and C20 display
windows and glazed door in voids on ground floor. Right-hand
flank (west) elevation has projecting gable of former No.2
Dimsdale Street at rear. This was truncated c1890 due to the
redevelopment of the adjoining site for the Cowbridge Halls,
and the gable end was rebuilt in yellow gault brick.

INTERIOR: front ground floor showroom to No.7 has rebuilt
segmentally-arched (originally 4 centre arched) red brick
fireplace with chamfered cheeks and intrados, and heavy timber
bressumer above. Dogleg plan staircase, with lowest flight
raised to eliminate windows, newel with multi-faced rhomboid
cap on inverted square urn, moulded handrail, with some bold
column-on-urn balusters, and closed strings. 2-light landing
window with ovolo mouldings. Exposed beams with chamfer and
tongue stops. Attics partly oversail above former Nos 2 & 4
Dimsdale Street. Roof has peg jointed purlin and rafter
construction.
Former Nos 2 & 4 Dimsdale Street is now opened out into No.7
Cowbridge. Ground floor remodelled internally but pattern of
beams indicate 3 bay structure at right angles to rear of
No.7. First floor has original studwork external wall, with
several studs removed forming an openwork screen with access
from first floor of No.7 (no separate staircase now survives
within No.2). Mortices in wall plate indicate positions of
diamond section window mullions. Exposed 2 bay braced tie-beam
and crown post roof structure of late C15 date, with cambered
tie beams and square section unmoulded crown posts with fore
and aft curved bracing. No evidence of smoke blackening,
indicating that the building may have been unheated in its
original form. Third bay rearwards from Dismdale Street
appears to be C17 with no evidence for further prolongation of
crown post structure and truncated wooden purlin. Some
evidence for filled mortices in soffit of tie beam. To left
side of front, on south face, is an inserted chimneystack,
with fireplace arch at first-floor level.
Interior of former Nos 6 & 8 Dimsdale Street remodelled and
opened out on ground floor, with access to modern workshop at
rear. Evidence for smoke-hood behind large chimneystack shared
with former Nos 2 & 4. Ceiling inserted above tie beams on
first floor indicating earlier subdivision into 3 tenements of
1 bay each. No access to roof. Basement beneath No.7 has
arched vault through to main cellar beneath front room. Brick
lined walls.
(Forrester H: Timber-framed buildings in Hertford and Ware:
Hitchin: 1964-: 19; Smith JT: Hertfordshire Houses: Selective
Inventory: London: 1993-: 83; Green L: Hertford's Past in
Pictures: Ware: 1993-: 51, 98).

Listing NGR: TL3239712749

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26559193

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

• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas