Rothamsted Manor, Harpenden, (Conversion into Hostel)

NEW ROLE FOR OLD ENGLISH HOME - Rothamsted Manor, on the outskirts of Harpenden in Hertfordshire, was the birthplace and home of Sir John Bennet Lawes, founder of Rothamsted Experimental Station and the originator of agricultural science in so far as it relates to the content of the soil. Today the committee of the Lawes Agricultural Trust, with certain friends, are to visit the manor house, where the director of the research station, Sir William Ogg, will show them the remarkable work of preservation and adaptation to modem needs which has recently been done at this beautiful old dwelling-house. The core of the manor house, including notably parts of the hall and of the room above it, may well date from the fourteenth or early fifteenth century; and in the sixteenth century the Bardolph family, who then owned Rothamsted, added other rooms and -a range of buildings (in which was a brewhouse) on the north side of the courtyard. On the whole, however, the house, as it now exists, belongs to the seventeenth century, particularly to the years after about 1630, when the property was acquired by Sir John Wittewronge, a Fleming, from whom the Lawes family descended. The singularly satisfying south front, the chief external feature of the house, with a clock tower and five rather Flemish-looking gables of brick, was built at various times between 1630 and 1680. The principal staircase, with its massive oak balustrades, matched along certain flights by imitation balustrades painted on the opposite walls, is known to have been built in 1678. Until the beginning of the second world war Rothamsted Manor was in private occupation, though since 1934 it had, like the surrounding estate, belonged to the Lawes Agricultural Trust. Early in the war the Army took it over. When the manor was handed back to the trustees, sadly in need of maintenance, the problem arose of what use to make of it, and after some discussion it was decided to convert it so as to provide accommodation for members of the staff, including those from oversea, and for visiting scientists. The Pilgrim Trust made a grant of £2,000 towards the preservation of the fabric, and the main cost was borne by the Ministry of Agriculture. The architect of the conversion was Major J. B. F. Cowper. Six small flats and about 20 single rooms are now available and furnished ready for use. The flats, indeed, are already occupied, though the building is not to open as a hostel until about 19 April. Thus, a famous, and very lovely, old English home enters on a new stage in its life. [The Times 2 April 1952 page 6]