The Ruins Of South Wingfield Manor House, Incorporating Manor Farmhouse And An Aisled Outbuilding To The South

The ruins of South Wingfield Manor House, a fortified medieval manor built between 1439 and 1453 by Ralph, Lord Cromwell (Lord Treasurer from 1433 to 1443), are constructed of massive ashlar and rubble gritstone with some tiled roofs. The building follows a double courtyard plan with outer entrance gateways at the south east corner of the south courtyard. The south, east and west ranges contained offices and quarters for the household. To the north, a cross range divided the inner and outer courtyards, with a central gateway flanked by superior lodgings containing hearths. The inner courtyard contained further guest lodgings with hearths and garderobes in the west range, which included a 72-foot-high tower at its south end. The north range comprised a kitchen court at the west end, with kitchens and service rooms below private apartments and a great chamber. From the kitchens, a passage led to the screens passage of the Great Hall, which featured a gabled entrance porch, an oriel window at the dais end, and a vaulted undercroft. The east range and parlour to the Great Hall no longer survive. Save for the undercroft, the site is largely ruinous, though roofed structures survive in each courtyard.

The farmhouse in the north courtyard, south side, dates from the mid-18th century and is constructed of stone with slated and pantiled roofs. Its south elevation has two massive projecting stacks, formerly serving the lodgings; one features a 19th-century diagonal ashlar chimney, while the smaller one to the east has a 19th-century plain cap. Most windows are 20th-century insertions in old surrounds, with one featuring a flush mullion at the east end. A 20th-century stone infill exists between the entrance tower and the projecting stack to the west, below windows with chamfered and quoined surrounds. A continuous plinth matches the range to the west of the gateway. A gabled single-storey porch with an uncoped gable contains a four-centred arched entrance doorway with a 20th-century glazed door. A long stone-slated catslide roof covers the rear elevation, incorporating a traceried 2-light window. A three-storey attached wing at the east end has a gable stack and a pantiled roof with stone-slated eaves.

The aisled outbuilding at the south end of the east range is thought to be the earliest building in the complex, providing workspace and accommodation for labourers. Built of coursed rubble gritstone with ashlar dressings, it has a coped east gable and a stone-slated roof. The two-storey, five-bay structure features a four-centred arched doorway with a quoined surround at the centre bay, with bays delineated by shallow stepped buttresses. Two 2-light chamfered mullioned windows appear, one on each floor. Two smaller openings exist, and the west bay has been rebuilt with a quoined and chamfered surround to a first-floor opening above a slit window.

The interior contains aisle arcades supporting a double purlin roof, with aisle posts standing on 1-metre-high stone pads and featuring jowels to north and south faces to carry transverse floor beams and spurs to walls. Diminutive curved braces support the transverse and tie beams. The arcade plates are braced longitudinally with massive curved braces. Through purlins have curved wind braces and support collar and tie beam trusses rising from the arcade plate, with a coupled rafter roof above. At the east end are hearths related to those in the adjoining gatehouse. In front of this sits a shallow single-bay floor with short posts and wall posts that are angle braced.

After Cromwell's death, the manor was sold to the Earl of Shrewsbury and remained in that family's ownership. During this period, Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned here. Following the Restoration, the astronomer Immanuel Halton created a new house within the shell of the Great Hall. The site is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument in Guardianship.