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

St Albans

St Albans is a city in southern Hertfordshire, England, around north of central London, which forms the main urban area of the City and District of St Albans. It is a historic market town, and is now a sought-after dormitory town within the London commuter belt...

, Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

. It is a Grade I listed building.

The Tyttenhanger estate was owned by the Abbey of St Albans until the Dissolution of the Monasteries

Dissolution of the Monasteries

The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...

 and was then granted by the Crown in 1547 to Sir Thomas Pope, founder of Trinity College, Oxford

Trinity College, Oxford

The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope , or Trinity College for short, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It stands on Broad Street, next door to Balliol College and Blackwells bookshop,...

. 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

High Sheriff of Hertfordshire

The High Sheriff of Hertfordshire was an ancient High Sheriff title originating in the time of the Angles, not long after the invasion of the Kingdom of England, which was in existence for around a thousand years...

 in 1598.

Blount's nephew, Sir Henry Blount

Henry Blount

Sir Henry Blount was a 17th century English landowner, traveller and author.-Life:He was the third son of Sir Thomas Pope Blount of Blount's Hall, Staffordshire and Tyttenhanger, Hertfordshire and was educated at St Albans Free School and Trinity College, Oxford...

 (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

Blount Baronets

The Blount Baronetcy of Sodington, [Mamble] in the County of Worcester, was created in the Baronetage of England on 5 October 1642 for Walter Blount, High Sheriff of Worcestershire in 1619 and Member of Parliament for Droitwich from 1624 to 1625. He later fought as a Royalist in the Civil War. He...

 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

Earl of Hardwicke is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1754 for Philip Yorke, 1st Baron Hardwicke, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain from 1737 to 1756. He had already been created Baron Hardwicke, of Hardwicke in the County of Gloucester, in 1733, and was made Viscount...

and whose grandson Philip become the third Earl.

The family retained ownership until 1973 when the house was converted for use as commercial offices.