Geograph - photograph every grid square

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 Link . 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 SP9610 : Norcott Hill Farm, Northchurch.
See 'Genealogy in Hertfordshire' web site at Link (Archive Link ) for further information.