Rowley Manor

Rowley Manor is a rectory, later adapted as a hotel, dating from circa 1710. It was originally built for Reverend William Hildyard, with an additional storey and an east wing added for Reverend Robert Croft (rector 1786-1831). A west wing was completed in 1921, and interior furnishings were added after the building became a private house in 1924. The building is constructed of red brick with stone dressings, a timber eaves cornice, and slate roofs.

The principal block is three storeys and five bays, with rusticated quoins. The central bay projects forward, featuring a 20th-century glazed entrance door with an overlight containing glazing bars. Flanking the entrance are sash windows with glazing bars and sills, each set within a flat gauged brick arch. The first floor has five similar sashes. The second floor has five 20th-century replacement windows with glazing bars and sills, also beneath slightly canted gauged brick arches. A moulded timber eaves cornice runs along the top of the building, and there is a hipped roof with end and axial stacks.

The late 18th-century wing to the right is two storeys high and one bay wide, with sashes and glazing bars to both ground and first floors, and a hipped roof. The wing to the left has scattered sash windows and garden doors with glazing bars, with a hipped roof and end and front roof-pitch stacks. The present main entrance is at the rear of the principal block.

Inside, a fine early 18th-century closed-string staircase constructed of pine features square section newels with pendants, heavy twisted balusters, a moulded and ramped handrail, a ramped dado with bolection moulded panels, and an arched head. The north room of the east wing is lined with early 18th-century pine panelling, including raised and fielded panels, a panelled dado, and a fireplace in an eared surround with a frieze featuring festoons and a shell. An elaborate overmantel is carved with a wicker basket from which festoons and fruit drops hang. A door with six raised and fielded panels is set in an eared architrave with bead-and-reel ornamentation under a carved pulvinated frieze and broken pediment. Surrounding the room is a deep modillion eaves cornice. The south rooms of the early block (now combined into one room) have similar fireplaces in eared surrounds with pulvinated friezes, deep foliage carving, and elaborate cornices; the panelled overmantels have largely been re-made with a dentilled cornice enriched with egg and dart. A first-floor room in the early block contains a bolection-moulded fireplace.