Norcott Hall, Northchurch

Image: © Chris Reynolds Taken: 25 Jun 2009

I was very surprised to see this 18th century Georgian House as I was not expecting anything so grand at Norcott Hill Farm. It looked too good – and there was no sign of any avenue of 200 year old trees associated with the building. When I got home my doubts were confirmed. There was no mention of it in any of the books in my Hertfordshire history library – and it was definitely not there on large scale maps of 1884 www.old-maps.co.uk . In fact the first reference I found in my own library was that in the mid-1990s the name “Norcott Hall” appears on ordnance survey maps. It is obviously a 20th century build and a Google search, plus a search of pre-war Kelly's Directories, suggests it was probably built by Thomas Geoffrey Blackwell (1884-1943), who took up residence at Norcott Hill in or shortly before 1937, and died there in 1943. He was deputy chairman of Cross & Blackwell. More recently it was the home of Gordon D Claridge, whose company ran the Port of Lowestoft, and who died in about 1996. He also ran the farm (through a company with his name) and it would appear that the farm buildings were converted to housing shortly after his death. See also Image See 'Genealogy in Hertfordshire' web site at http://www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk/links/norcott-hill.htm for further information.

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