Ginger Hall, Little Chalfont - Local Heritage List Platform

Location/Address

Ginger Hall, Village Way, Little Chalfont, Buckinghamshire, HP7 9PU

Type

Building

Roofed and walled permanent structures.

Description

One of only 2 remains thatched houses - and the only one of more or less original form - in a private road of 1920’s houses, which originally had many. Accommodation predominantly on the ground-floor, although there is a small amount of second-floor area set into the roof which is original. Retains original chimneys & also appears to have old front door. Predominantly flat-front, although slight recess to centre where there is the front door & adjacent window, with light-yellow painted render & 2 further windows - one to either side. Small window set within thatched roof, to serve first-floor room.

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Statement of Significance

Age

1920’s - photograph of finished house published in 1925

Rarity

When Village Way was built - which was a century ago - there were numerous houses with thatched roofs. Some of those nearest the railway line - in the age of steam - were reroofed fairly swiftly with tiles, after the thatch caught fire. Other were changed over the years, presumably for reasons of maintenance/ rebuilding/ restyling etc. There are now only 2 houses in the entire road left with thatched roofs, Ginger Hall & Gable Cottage. Gable Cottage has been extended to an extent that the original house now forms a minority of what is there & associated alterations mean that the overall form is very different to the original. Ginger Hall, on the other hand, has only been extended at single-storey level to the back & retains the original appearance of the dwelling.

Architectural and Artistic Interest

Sweet little 1920’s cottage, simply designed & nearly symmetrical under a thatched roof. Only asymmetrical part is the centre of the ground-floor where the front door sits to the right & an adjacent window to the left. Despite replacement windows, charm remains & is the only thatched property left in the road which still has the design of the original place remaining. To the front boundary, remains an original outside streetlamp which is contemporary to the dwelling.

Historic Interest

Following the arrival of the railway line, to what was then called Chalfont Road Station - now Chalfont & Latimer - there was originally resistance from the predominant local landowner for the development of the land in the vicinity of the Station. Indeed, land was purchased solely to prevent buildings being erected. A generation later - & after the Great War - the family of the Duke of Bedford, took a different view. Numerous fields were offered for sale by auction, through Knight Frank & Rutley, of which the land forming Village Way was one. There are other 1920’s developments of buildings in Little Chalfont, however Village Way seems to have been the first recorded to have started construction. A company called Morlands Concessions Ltd. were the purchaser & developer and they set up a small office outside the nearby Station for the purposes of marketing, selling & administering their new development. They came up with the name of Chalfont Station Village. The Buckinghamshire Examiner of 1925 reports how the new residents suggested renaming this Little Chalfont & the new name was agreed. There are also some interesting combinations of materials used in the development, being after WW1. Ginger Hall is a good example of this. Whilst some houses are of brick construction, others - such as those which were originally rendered - are understood to have been constructed from pre-cast concrete blocks. Some houses have clay-tiled roofs, others larger composite ones. In the case of Ginger Hall, the thatch was chosen solely on the grounds that a thatcher from Norfolk was employed who was able to provide the roofing at a lower price than tiles would have costed in the early 1920’s!