Extract from British Listed Buildings
Circa 1600 timber-framed and plastered farmhouse with alterations to the exterior in the C19 and with modern wood casement fenestration. Two-storey with 3 large bays, the centre one containing a brick stack. Service bay extension at east end. Rear stair wing and modern extensions. Gable and clay tile roofs. Large C19 ridge stack of 3 square shafts with dentil capping. Small gabled porch to front with barge boards.
The first part of the name has been linked with Nicholas de Anstie in the early 13th Century. However a gallows certainly used to stand on the corner. We discuss the location further in the Crime section of this site. The local historian Gerald Curtis, in his Story of the Sampfords, said:
Tradition has it that the gallows stood a few yards west of the road junction, on the bank on the north side of the Radwinter road. It was still there in the reign of Elizabeth I. The Anso vegetable garden below the bank and beside the road is the reputed burial ground of the fruit of the gallows tree, As we hurry past on our daily avocations, we may reflect that many a pair of human eyes has seen in the quiet valley of the Pant a last view of this transient world.
In 1918, the house was sold as part of the Hempstead Estate
