Have you wondered about the rather unusual black and white half-timbered house that dominates the view as you come towards the end high point of Chantry Road, shortly before the junction with Cricketfield Lane? This is Oak Hall, built in the 1860’s by George Edward Pritchett, a noted local architect and antiquarian who combined these two interests in this building.
Image taken by Chris Connell
Until the 1840’s, Chantry Road did not exist and the land was a collection of fields. An enterprising local entrepreneur, Frederick Chaplin, built the road, to connect Hadham Road with Cricketfield Lane, and divided the land into 12 plots which were then sold at auction in 1848, with part of the marketing extolling the proximity of the station and trains to London, even in the early Victorian age! Pritchett was able to acquire 3 contiguous plots on the north side of the road, to put together an estate of about 10 acres.
The house was built towards the top end allowing for extensive gardens which stretched as far as present- day Pleasant Road. Intermittent remains of the original boundary wall can still be spotted as you walk along. He built this house as his family home, following his marriage in 1864, having previously lived in North Street.
The house is Elizabethan in style, with a large central hall, and originally had a thatched roof. The bricks used in the building were made on site, using clay excavated on site. At least some of the oak had been acquired by Pritchett from an old school building which was being demolished in Littlebury and then stored on site until used. Of interest are the plaster relief mouldings on the front the building. These are motifs representing the four nations of Great Britain and Ireland, a rose, a thistle, a harp and crossed feathers, and, below a circular motif of a griffin, his heraldic symbol.
Image taken by Chris Connell
The house was the first in Bishops Stortford to be equipped with an electricity generator, to provide lighting – Pritchett was also interested in technology and his sons became electrical engineers.
Following his death in 1912, the house and its extensive collection of antiquarian objects and furniture were sold at auction, his family apparently having no interest in maintaining this aspect of his legacy. The house has since had a mixed history and is now subdivided into apartments, with the thatched roof replaced by a tiled roof but otherwise essentially unchanged.
Image from the auction catalogue, July 1912 – copyright Bishop’s Stortford Museum
