PLACE HOUSE

WARE 

A short history

Place House stands in a small walled courtyard in the centre of Ware and is a building of grade I national historic and architectural importance. As the former manor house of Ware, the oldest part of the building is thought to date to the late 13th or early 14th century when the manor was held by Thomas Wake, the Second Lord of Lydell (b.1297 - d.1349). Today the building is owned by the Hertfordshire Building Preservation Trust who became its owners in 1975 and oversaw its restoration in 1977-8.

The original part of the medieval house, an aisled hall and cross passage, stands at the core of the building (Place House Hall). To the rear is a small kitchen, toilets and the Panelled Room. The remainder of Place House is in private use as self-contained offices and residential accommodation.

c1300—1685: the manor house

Between c1300 and 1685 the Manor of Ware was owned by a series of Lords, Ladies, Countesses and Monarchs (also known as Le Place, The Place, Braughins Place and Ware Place). In 1513 the manor was given to the Countess of Salisbury, Lady Margaret Pole, who was both Governess and godmother to Princess Mary (1516 - 1558), the eldest daughter of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, who became Queen Mary I in 1553. During the 1540s the first known tenant of Place House was Richard Welles who was probably responsible for commissioning the carved screen in the aisled hall (c1548). His initials, RW, appear on several Parchemin panels along with ‘well covers’, and the connection to Princess Mary is shown from the union of the houses of Tudor and Aragon; the Tudor rose spliced with the pomegranate in an upper panel. In the 17th century the building was leased to Humfrey Packer and then William Collet. Both Packer and Collet added painted initials HP and WC on the dividing bar of the screen along with dates; 1629 and 1657.

 
16th century carved screen at Place Hall with Parchemin decorated panels,
the Tudor rose and pomegranates

1685 - 1761: Christ's Hospital and The Bluecoat Children

Christ’s Hospital was founded as a charity in 1553 by King Edward VI to teach the children of ‘freemen’ of London who otherwise had no means of a receiving an education. Those too young to receive full-time education were "put out to nurse" in Essex or Hertfordshire until they were able to attend the London school. Children attending Christ’s Hospital were provided with a uniform which gave them their name, ‘the bluecoat children’: dark blue coats made of kersey with a yellow lining of welsh cotton. Since at least 1564 ‘fostered children’ were cared for in Ware by ‘foster parents’ living in private houses and were educated in the aisled hall at Place House from around 1674 onwards.

In 1685 the Governors of Christ’s Hospital purchased Place House. It required substantial alterations in order to teach and house young boys along with a Schoolmaster. The manor house was re-modelled; most of the buildings standing west and south of the hall were demolished so that twelve cottages (‘Nurses’ Houses’) could be built to house the children (1 - 12 Bluecoat Yard opposite Place House, now privately owned). The Schoolmaster’s House was re-built east of the hall (now private residences). The school closed in 1761 and the children were moved to premises in Hertford.

1761 – 1900

The Governors of Christ’s Hospital retained the ownership of Place House until 1900. It remained as a single residence with the attached aisled hall until a floor was inserted to provide ground and first floor rooms in the late 18th century, but by the early 19th century Place House had been divided into two houses. In the mid 19th century one wing of Place House was occupied by Martha Medcalf and her sister Elizabeth, who ran a school for young ladies in the hall; instructing girls in grammar, history, geography, writing, arithmetic, French, music and dancing. Misses Medcalf occupied Place House for  the next forty years.

Sketch of the internal timber frame by C. Hewett showing the hall, aisle,
cross passage and crown post in the roof

1900  –  current

Richard Gubbin bought Place House from Christ’s Hospital in 1900 along with the Bluecoat Yard cottages. The Gubbin family rented Place House to tenants until Dr John Henry Gubbin sold it to John Whitfield in 1954. Then in 1970 after John died, the Hertfordshire Building Preservation Trust were offered the building. It had fallen into disrepair and John had stated that the building should be repaired and protected. After its restoration, Place House was opened by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother on 8th July 1978. Today the hall is managed by the Trust as an amenity hall for local people and also houses a memorial plaque to those who fell in WWII.

 

The Hall today - set up for a Christmas dinner.