Tyttenhanger House is a 17th-century country mansion, now converted into commercial offices, at Tyttenhanger, near

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

. It is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

The Tyttenhanger estate was owned by the Abbey of St Albans until the Dissolution of the Monasteries and was then granted by the Crown in 1547 to Sir

Thomas Pope Sir Thomas Pope (c. 150729 January 1559), was a prominent public servant in mid-16th-century England, a Member of Parliament, a wealthy landowner, and the founder of Trinity College, Oxford. Early life Pope was born at Deddington, near Ban ...

, founder of

Trinity College, Oxford (That which you wish to be secret, tell to nobody) , named_for = The Holy Trinity , established = , sister_college = Churchill College, Cambridge , president = Dame Hilary Boulding , location = Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BH , coordinates ...

. Pope died without issue in 1559 and left the estate to his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Walter Blount of Blounts Hall, Staffordshire. On her death it passed to her nephew Sir Thomas Pope Blount (1552–1638), who was

High Sheriff of Hertfordshire The High Sheriff of Hertfordshire was an ancient Sheriff title originating in the time of the Angles, not long after the foundation of the Kingdom of England, which was in existence for around a thousand years. On 1 April 1974, under the provisio ...

in 1598.''A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England Ireland and Scotland'' 2nd Ed. Burke and Burke (1844) pp66-68. Blount of Tittenhanger Blount's nephew, Sir Henry Blount (1602–1682), High Sheriff in 1661, demolished Pope's manor house and built the present mansion on the site in 1654/5. The house which was altered and extended in the 18th century presents an impressive entrance front of three storeys with attics and nine bays. The central five bays topped by a belfry, are flanked by projecting two bayed wings The adjacent stable block, also of 17th-century origin, now converted to residential use, is a Grade II listed building. Sir Henry's son Thomas Pope Blount (1649–1697) was created the first of the

Blount baronets {{Use dmy dates, date=October 2021 There have been two baronetcies created for persons with the surname Blount (pronounced "Blunt"), both in the Baronetage of England Baronets are a rank in the British aristocracy. The current Baronetage of the Uni ...

in 1680. On the death of the third Baronet in 1757 the estate passed to his niece and heiress Catherine Freeman, whose daughter married Charles Yorke, second son of the first

Earl of Hardwicke Earl of Hardwicke is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1754 for Philip Yorke, 1st Baron Hardwicke, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain from 1737 to 1756. He had already been created Baron Hardwicke, of Hardwicke in ...

and whose grandson Philip become the third Earl. Field-Marshal Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander (1891-1969), who after successfully managing the British 1st Army in North Africa and Italy, from 1941 lived at Tyttenhanger House. The family retained ownership until 1973 when the house was converted for use as commercial offices.

References

{{coord , 51, 43, 40, N, 0, 16, 34, W, display=title Grade I listed buildings in Hertfordshire Country houses in Hertfordshire Grade I listed houses 1655 establishments in England