Description

GAMLINGAY MILL STREET TL 2352 (East side) 11/78 No 1 (Havelock 22.11.67 House) (formerly listed as Havelock House, Mill Lane)

GV II*

House. 1688, refronted late C18 or early C19. Red brick, Flemish bond, tuck pointed to front wall. Tiled roof with end stack, one to south rebuilt. Gable end parapets on kneelers, now partly obscured at south end by paired wood modillion eaves cornice returned partly round the gable end. Main family range with domestic wing at the rear and contemporary but smaller range, now extended, parallel to front range. This houses a service staircase. Two storeys and attic. Two dormers. Symmetrical late C18 or early C19 facade of five window range of twelve pane recessed hung sashes. Three brick plat band between storeys. Ground floor has four similar windows under gauged brick arches on either side of doorway. Late C18-early C19 door with six raised and fielded and beaded panels. Rectangular fanlight with glazing bars and original glazing. Above the doorway, reset in the plat band a cartouche of moulded brick with scrolled border and mask to centre of upper edge are the initials ANF. The rear elevation has original openings to the windows, although the windows are later. South of the house and adjoining is a range of office and coach-house. Circa 1840. Red brick and slate roof. Carriageway with boarded doors to centre and office sash window with single vertical glazing bar and door next to the house. Interior: the house contains three plaster ceilings of 1688 attributed on the basis of style to Henry Doogood, the London plasterer who was working on the Old Library, Pembroke College, Cambridge and 5 Market Hill, Cambridge at about this period. Ground floor room has central rectangular panel, bolection moulded with corner roundels with foliate bosses and rectangular side panels. Concealed by wall panel, on the north and east walls are six oval wall paintings representing a church and spire, gallows, man in a top hat and flying birds. The staircase is mainly C19, but the attic flight has twisted newels and balusters of late C17, and there are some balusters of column-on-vase type which possibly represent an intermediate remodelling. The landing is approached through a screen with an elliptical arch and a central head mask and cartouches to the imposts with the date 1688. The ceiling has a centre panel, square with bay leaf ornament and moulded cornice. The first floor chamber has the most elaborate ceiling. The centre represents the God Cupid in clouds attended by flying birds with an oval garland of fruit and flowers in high relief. An outer border has a frieze of foliage with animals including dogs, swine, deer and at either end plasterers or masonic emblems. Each of the corners has a component digit 1688 in a quadrant. There is a bolection moulded fireplace surround and above a plaster overmantel of the same quality and date as the ceiling. It has a-square centre panel with kneeling putto offering a basket of fruit and flowers with a landscape. It seems likely that the house was built and the plasterwork undertaken for Nicholas Apthorp who in the late C17 is known to have had a substantial landholding in Gamlingay.

RCHM: West Cambs mon (31) Beard: Craftsmen and Interior Decoration 1660-1820 Pevsner: Buildings of England p 392 C Brown: Mss Notes (1985)

Listing NGR: TL2374752326

External Links

• Wikidata Q17550528

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