Dancers Hill House South Mimms Heritage Statement January 2015 Built Heritage Consultancy Dancers Hill House South Mimms Heritage Statement January 2015 Contents 1.0 Introduction 1 2.0 Understanding 2 3.0 Significance 31 4.0 Planning Policy Context 38 5.0 Assessment of the Proposals 42 5.0 Assessment of Landscape Proposals 49 7.0 Conclusion 52 8.0 Sources 53 Appendix:Listed building descriptions 55 © Built Heritage Consultancy 2015 This report is for the sole use of the person/organisation to whom it is addressed. It may not be used or referred to in whole or in part by anyone else without the express agreement of the Built Heritage Consultancy. The Built Heritage Consultancy does not accept liability for any loss or damage arising from any unauthorised use of this report. 1.0 Introduction Dancers Hill House lies on the eastern side of Dancers Lane, around 300m to the east of the A1081 and around 400m to the south of the M25. It comprises a small Palladian villa of 1750- 60, which was remodelled and extended in two main phases in the second half of the 19th century. The current owner, Melanie Walsh, and her family have lived in the property since 1992. It has been a lovingly enjoyed home, but the children have now left. Melanie has had the house on the market for two years but although she has been open to offers there has been no interest whatsoever. As set out in the letter from Statons, the issue is not the price but the size and ongoing running costs of this type of property. It is therefore proposed to subdivide the house into three flats, with a further dwelling created from the cottage and staff accommodation, thereby sharing the costs of upkeep and securing the building’s long-term future. The Built Heritage Consultancy has been commissioned to prepare this Heritage Statement to inform and support applications for planning permission and listed building consent for the proposed works. Dancers Hill House is listed at Grade II (list entry no. 1103562), and there is a separately-listed Grotto some 70m north east of the house (list entry no. 1174539). The purpose of the Heritage Statement is to assess the impact of the proposals on the significance of these heritage assets. The report summarises our research and sets out the history and significance of the assets potentially affected, as well as considering the impact of the proposals in the light of applicable national and local authority heritage policies. Paragraph 128 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF, 2012) requires applicants to: describe the significance of any heritage assets affected, including any contribution made by their setting. The level of detail should be proportionate to the assets’ importance and no more than is sufficient to understand the potential impact of the proposal on their significance. This Heritage Statement meets these requirements at an appropriate level of detail. The report has been prepared by Anthony Hoyte BA(Hons) MA(RCA) MSc IHBC and James Weeks MA, and is based on archival research and a site visit made in October 2014. Dancers Hill House viewed from the south Dancers Hill House, South Mimms: Heritage Statement 1 2.0 Understanding 2.1 Context Dancers Hill House lies on the eastern side of Dancers Lane, around 300m to the east of the present road from Barnet to South Mimms (the A1081) and around 400m to the south of the M25. Historically, it lay within the parish of South Mimms, which was the most northerly parish in Middlesex. The Church of St Giles, South Mimms, the earliest parts of which date from the 13th century, lies around 2.2km to the north west. Under the Local Government Act 1894, the parish of South Mimms was split into two. The southern part formed South Mimms Urban Parish, part of Barnet Urban District, and was transferred to Hertfordshire. In 1965, Barnet Urban District was abolished by the London Government Act 1963 and became part of the present-day London Borough of Barnet. The northern part, in which Dancers Hill House is located, formed South Mimms Rural District. It became Potters Bar Urban District in 1934, and was transferred from Middlesex to Hertfordshire in 1965. In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, Potters Bar Urban District was abolished and its former area was combined with that of Elstree Rural District, Bushey Urban District and part of Watford Rural District to form the present-day borough of Hertsmere. The boundary between Hertsmere and the London Borough of Barnet lies around 1.4km to the south. According to the South Hertfordshire Landscape Character Assessment (2000-5:111-114), the Wrotham Park and Bentley Wood character area in which Dancers Hill House is located (area 025) comprises a small yet distinctive plateau with associated slopes within Wrotham Park. South Mimms Potters Bar South Mimms services M25 A D 1 a 0 n 8 c e 1 A1(M) r S s t L A a l n b e a n s R o a d Wrotham Park Dyrham Park Country Club Google Site location 2 Dancers Hill House, South Mimms: Heritage Statement Slopes within the parkland fall to the east, west and also towards Dancers Hill to the north west. Dancers Hill House lies right on the western edge of the character area, and to the north, south and west is a broadly-level and gently-undulating plain (Arkley Plain: character area 024). The underlying geology of the slopes and the plain comprises Tertiary clay overlaid by slowly-permeable and seasonally-waterlogged soils with some brown subsoils (Windsor series). There are locally areas of fine loamy and silty soils over these clays. To the north east, Potters Bar lies on a flat ridge of pebble gravel. Early settlement in the area seems to have avoided the wooded slopes of London Clay and to have sought the shelter of the Mimmshall Brook valley to the west, where the soil could more easily be worked, as well as the gravel-capped ridge to the north, with its well-water. The early importance of the Mimmshall Brook valley is shown by the building there of both a castle, on the site of what appears to have been a Saxon settlement, and South Mimms manor house. The castle is assumed to have been built by Geoffrey de Mandeville (d.1144), Earl of Essex, on his Manor of Mimms. A manor house was first recorded in 1268, and, together with its mill, stood north of the main village of South Mimms (on the site of the present Warrengate Farm), perhaps because increasing traffic, particularly after the establishment of Barnet market, made the route to St Albans a more attractive position. In the village itself, settlement centred upon the church and by c.1220 there was a sprinkling of tenements along the roads leading towards it. Another village grew up along the gravel-capped ridge to the north east, at Potters Bar. The ‘Bar’ is said to have been one of the gates of Enfield Chase, a royal hunting ground. As detailed below, a house called Dancers Hill appears to have existed since the mid 16th century, although the earliest parts of the present building date from the 1750s. To the south west of Dancers Hill House lies the Dyrham Park estate (now Dyrham Park Country Club), which in the late 14th century belonged to John Durham. The present house www.pitchcare.com Dyrham Park (c.1800-10), now Dyrham Park Country Club www.geograph.org.uk Lodges and gateway, Dyrham Park (c.1790-1800) Dancers Hill House, South Mimms: Heritage Statement 3 dates from the early 19th century, whilst the lodges and arched gateway at the park’s north- eastern corner date from the last decade of the 18th century. Around 100m to the south west of Dancers Hill House was Wicks Place, a house owned in 1709 by John Nicholl of Hendon Hall. This was renamed Laurel Lodge when it was acquired by the Trotter family of Dyrham Park. It was demolished in the late 1950s, and its site was subsequently developed with the present Laurel House. To the east of Dancers Hill House is Wrotham Park, formerly part of the Pinchbank estate, first recorded in 1310. The present Palladian house was commissioned from Isaac Ware (1704- 1756) by Admiral John Byng (1704-1757) in 1754. Byng is famous for being court-martialled and executed in 1757 following the fall of Minorca. Wrotham Park subsequently passed to his nephew George Byng (1735-1789), who employed Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown (1716-1783) to work on the park. The estate remains in the Byng family. As detailed below, Dancers Hill House was bought by George Byng in 1768, and remained in the family’s ownership until the 1980s. Dancers Hill Farmhouse, some 200m to the north of Dancers Hill House, dates from c.1820-30, but possibly incorporates an earlier core. The greatest changes to the character of the area have been brought about by the development of roads. Until the creation of the straight road from Barnet to St Albans by Thomas Telford (1757-1834) in the early 19th century, the main coaching route (first mentioned in c.1220) followed a tortuous course through Kitts End, Dancers Hill, and Mimms Wash. It passed along the present Dancers Lane and its original continuation to the north, Wash Lane, and thus Dancers Hill House was for much of its history situated on a busy thoroughfare. The growth of South Mimms village, Kitts End, and Dancers Hill in the 18th century reflects increasing traffic along this road.