Manor Farmhouse

Manor Farmhouse is a house of significant architectural and historical interest, originally built as an impropriate rectory house in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, later converted to farmhouse use. The building dates primarily from between 1580 and 1620, with subsequent alterations carried out in the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

Materials and Construction

The house is constructed mainly of ironstone, with limestone surrounds to the windows. Three of the main gables are built in brick, whilst a smaller gable is timber-framed. The roof is covered in Swithland slate.

Plan and Form

The building has an L-shaped plan, comprising a main south range and a north wing, with a stair turret positioned in the corner between them. The house rises through two storeys with attics.

Architectural Development

The building appears to have been constructed in two distinct phases, as evidenced by a straight joint visible in the centre of the south elevation, above the porch. On either side of this joint, there are notable differences in architectural detail. To the west of the joint, there is no chamfered plinth, whereas to the east, the chamfered plinth of the porch continues along the wall. The window styles also differ: those to the west in both south and north elevations are made of Ancaster Weatherbed Limestone with hollow chamfered mullions, whilst those to the east of the joint are Ancaster Hard White Limestone with ovolo moulded mullions.

The South Elevation

A single storey porch stands slightly to the east of centre on the south elevation. It has a chamfered plinth and plain stone capped parapet. The porch doorway is positioned on the west side and features a rounded arched head with hoodmould. To both the south and east, the porch has hollow chamfered stone mullioned windows, each with two lights.

To the west of the central joint, the pair of windows furthest west have four lights, whilst the pair closer to the centre have three lights. There is graffiti carved into the surround of the window nearest the porch. Between the two ground floor windows is a taller, thin oak mullioned and transomed window, a later insertion, probably dating from the 17th century.

To the east of the joint are four taller three-light windows and a small two-light window positioned above the porch. The first floor window furthest east is blocked with brick.

The East and North Elevations

The chamfered plinth continues around the east gable of the south range, where the windows—one on both ground and first floors—are similar to those at the east end of the south elevation but have six lights.

The east elevation continues into the north wing, which features a massive stone chimney stack at its centre. A single storey lean-to extension has been built over the stack, with an open-sided wood store at its north end. Through this lean-to is a side entrance to the house, originally a window. To the south of the stack at first floor level is a two-light mullioned window, whilst to the north is a three-light window; both are similar to those at the east end of the south wing.

The three windows in the gable end and the three in the west elevation of the north wing also feature ovolo mouldings. The three-light window on the first floor of the west elevation has its outer lights blocked with brick.

The Stair Turret

The gabled stair turret has a doorway with a Tudor arch facing the street, and three irregularly sized and spaced windows lighting the stairwell. The largest of these, with three lights, has hollow chamfered mullions. Immediately to the west of the stairwell in the north elevation of the main range is a massive chimney stack, which contains a small window at ground floor level.

Architectural Details

All gables have small windows beneath the apex. Except for these small gable windows, all other windows have drip moulds over them. All seven chimneys are set diagonally.

Interior Arrangements

The entrance through the south porch leads into a stone-flagged passage with two framed door openings without doors to the west, and a partition with two panelled doors to the east. Straight ahead is a cupboard, now used as a wood store. Through the two framed openings is a further brick-floored passage, to the west of which is a large room currently used as a kitchen and living room.

The wood surrounds to the paired openings are chamfered on the west side, indicating that the west was once the higher status end, with the two doors originally giving access to service rooms at the east end. Later subdivisions have been removed from the west room to restore its open space. It contains a large open fireplace to the north, into which is set a brick fireplace and stove. At either end and across the centre of the room are transverse stop-chamfered beams supporting joists. There is a blocked door in the external west wall.

To the east, beyond the pair of passages, is a living room containing a stone fireplace and transverse beam. The joists are ceiled over. These rooms occupy the main south range.

In the corner between the south range and the north wing is the stair turret with front door and closed-well stair. The north wing has one main room. In its east wall is a Tudor arched stone fireplace with relieving arch over, on the north side of which is the blocked opening for an oven. The back wall of the fireplace is brick. This fireplace appears never to have been used, but to have been sealed over soon after its construction. In the north wall of the room is a door that gives access to a narrow room once used as a dairy.

First Floor and Attics

The first floor and attics have gypsum floors, as does the east ground floor room. The first floor of the main south range has two main rooms separated by a small bedroom, bathroom, landing and cupboard. The west room is divided in two by a 19th-century boarded partition, with a central door connecting the two halves. In the north wall is a stone fireplace with moulded Tudor arch and early 19th-century grate. The east room has a chamfered stone fireplace, also with an early 19th-century grate. The north wing room has been subdivided to make a bathroom and contains a small 19th-century fireplace. The ceilings have stop-chamfered beams and joists. This floor also has 18th-century fretted panelled screening transferred from the ground floor to make cupboard doors. Early graffiti, comprising the names of residents and visitors, survives carved into the wall plaster.

In the attics, the gables can be seen to be red brick, replacing earlier timber framing. The roof space of the main range has been divided into rooms. The east room of the main range contains the seventh fireplace with chamfered stone surround. The roof has butt purlins between principal rafters and tie beams, and residual dormers survive to the south. There is no ridge piece. The roof trusses are sequentially numbered throughout.

Historical Background

Manor Farmhouse was built between 1580 and 1620 for Richard, the second son of Sir Henry Hastings, Sheriff of Leicester, who had previously acquired the rectorial tithes of Clawson. In July 1641, his eldest son, also Henry, was married from the house, and the event may be commemorated by a poem to his bride carved into the plaster of the Great Chamber window.

After the wedding, the family seems to have had very little use for the house, although there is evidence that Henry lived at Long Clawson before he died. From promising aristocratic beginnings, the house quickly fell into neglect, becoming simply part of the exchangeable financial assets of the estate, changing hands several times during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Both its fabric and social standing were allowed to decline.

At some time the house seems to have been divided into two dwellings, possibly as early as before the Hearth Tax of 1668, which records two dwellings in Clawson with four hearths and one with three, but the seven hearths of Manor Farmhouse are not recorded. The wood mullioned window inserted in the ground floor south elevation in the early 18th century is probably a reflection of this, indicating the creation of additional rooms by subdividing the west end. By the late 18th or early 19th century, the house appears to have been in single occupancy once more.

19th-century changes included further internal subdivision. For example, the partition dividing the west bedroom into two is quite precisely datable to the 1840s from the newspaper behind the boards. The lean-to extension against the north-east elevation is first shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1903, and is built around the external chimney stack shown on the 1884 Ordnance Survey map.

In 1910, the house was bought by the sitting tenant, J.C. Wilford. Very few changes were made in the 20th century except for those involving some basic modernisation, which included the installation of electricity and a bathroom. The house as it is today has survived almost completely intact from the early 17th century, with only minor losses and alterations.

Recent work undertaken by the current owner includes repair of the roof; the reconstruction of the east chimney stack and of all the upper stacks; the discovery and restoration of the fireplaces in the ground floor of the north wing and the east room of the south range; and the refurbishment of windows and surrounds. The names and initials carved by past owners, occupiers and visitors into window sills, stonework and plaster have been carefully preserved.

Subsidiary Features

The barns to the east of the house are modern, but incorporate 19th-century mud walls. The perimeter mud wall at the north end of the site is modern. The barns and the wall are not of special architectural interest.