Rob Street has written a wonderful article entitled: A Man and His House
Click here to read an Adobe Acrobat version of the story. (7-2006)

The Lordship, Standon - by Rob Street

Sir Ralph Sadleir and his wife and children lived in Standon for some 48 years. We have evidence that in 1539 he either lived in a house on the site of the present day Lordship or in the village of Standon. It was in the same year that Henry VIII appointed Sir Ralph 'keeper of the site, parker, bailiff of the manor and steward of the Lordship'. People writing the history of the Lordship have repeated the mantra that there was an older house on the site before Sir Ralph got down to building his pile in 1546. We have no evidence of this. 1546 was the time of the building boom if you had money in England. And by this time Sir Ralph had the money to build his prestigious house. Hertfordshire and especially the north east bit around Standon was to become the Tudor commuter belt for court officials like Sir Ralph.

But what to build? These were the days before architects as we know them today so the design of the Lordship was a mixture of Sir Ralph's ideas, copying features from existing houses, and designing bits as you went along. We don't think that Sir Ralph did the grand tour to Italy so there was was no question that the Lordship would have had any renaissance bits and pieces. The Lordship of 1546 was bog standard Tudor. The west elevation had a

	central arched gateway (still seen today) with brick turrets either side similar to many houses of the period. Running from the west elevation it had a north and south wing. Sir Ralph's status was rising fast; he needed more space for servants and his ever increasing family, plus the fact that
to attract the monarch to stay you had to have a large showy house. It wasn't long before he was adding extensions, an east wing giving the house an internal courtyard and a further extension down to the river Rib.

Sir Ralph was rewarded. In 1578 Queen Elizabeth stayed for 3 days with about 150 of her party. Sir Ralph loved his house and estate at Standon and couldn't wait to get back to it after his many journeys to Scotland.

In March 1587 he died peacefully at the Lordship. His son and grandson continued living at the Lordship for another 70 years before it passed to the Aston family, then to William Plumer, then derelict, before coming into the hands of the Duke of Wellington where after several other owners it became the building you see today.


This is a very brief sketch of the Lordship and estate. If you would like to know more then contact Rob Street at robstreet@freeuk.com.