Cheshunt Great House was a manor house in the town of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, England, near to Waltham Abbey. It is said to have been built by Henry VIII of England for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. The family seat of the Shaw family for over a century, by the late 19th century it was used as a Freemasons Hall and was later used during World War II. After the war, the hall was too costly to run and was opened to the public until a fire gutted it in 1965. It was made a Grade II listed building on 11 June 1954. History The site had been a late medieval courtyard building, the residence of the manor of Andrews. The house was built in the latter part of the 15th century and was two storeys high with a tiled roof. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey owned the manor from 1519 until 1529. By the 18th century, the manor was owned by the Shaw family. In 1750, lord of the manor, William Shaw, saw that the exterior of the house was encased in Georgian brick and expanded, except the north front. In 1801, much of the house was in a state where it needed to be demolished, and around 1820 the south side was demolished by John Shaw, who was the owner around this time. In the late 19th century the house was used on several occasions for conferences. On 8 July 1876, the Provincial Grand Lodge of Hertfordshire was held at the manor, and until the 1930s it served as a Freemasons hall. In 1906, Cheshunt Great House and its of land were put on the market for roughly £2,000, which was later reduced to £900. It was purchased by Great House Co. Ltd, although most of the lodgers bought shares in the company. From August 1939 until 1944, the house was used for wartime requirements. After World War II, Cheshunt Great House was considered too expensive to renovate and was opened to the public until destroyed by fire in 1965. It was excavated in 1969. Later the site was turned into a landscaped garden. Structure In an early 18th-century print of the house, it was quadrangular, inclosing a courtyard, and there was some evidence that a wing had been removed from the north end of the west front. The south, west, and east fronts of the house still remained in the early 20th