Unstone Manor House

Manor House. Built in 1630 with alterations in the 18th century. The house is constructed of coursed squared rubble coal measures sandstone with ashlar dressings, quoins, and coped gables featuring moulded kneelers. It has intermediate and end ashlar ridge stacks with diagonally set chimneys finished with moulded caps. The roof is stone slated, with some stone slated valleys. The building comprises an L-shaped plan.

The west elevation has two storeys and six bays, with a two-bay advanced wing projecting north of the main doorway. The doorway has a quoined surround, with alternate quoins advanced in a Gibbsian style. A massive lintel has a carved keyblock, above which is an inscribed plaque that is now weathered and illegible. A hoodmould rises above the plaque to cover the door. To the south of the door is a four-light chamfered mullioned window, and at the first floor level are a single light, a two-light, and a four-light window. A broad gabled dormer with a blocked three-light window sits in the attic, all openings being chamfer mullioned and beneath hoodmoulds, which include label stops. There are fixed lights and metal casement windows with leaded lights. The advanced wing has two and three-light mullioned and transomed openings from the 17th century to the ground floor; the southern bay is blocked. The first floor features two, three, and four-light openings. A continuous hoodmould with stops returns from the advanced wing to the main range, linking with mouldings to the entrance bay. The northern corner of the wing is slightly advanced and quoined on both faces.

The rear elevation displays three gabled dormers, each with a three-light mullioned window. Below the centre and south gables is a continuous plain drip that returns onto the south gable end. Two outer bays each contain stacked three-light chamfer mullioned windows, plus two single-light openings to the first floor. The centre bay has a four-light first-floor window above the four-light transomed window to the hall. These windows, along with the one on the north end, have hoodmoulds with stops. The doorway to the south end is quoined and flanked by a single-light window to the south and a three-light chamfer mullioned window to the north, all beneath a continuous dripmould.

Inside, the hall features ornamental geometric patterned flagstones on a raised dais within the advanced wing, which includes reused 17th-century square oak panelling. An 18th-century staircase has a wreathed handrail, but incorporates an earlier moulded timber newel post. A massive arched hearth is in the south bay, and remains of two upper cruck trusses are built into the remodelled roof structure. The house plan is illustrated in Nathaniel Lloyd’s 'A History of the English House'.