The Manor House

THE MANOR HOUSE, BITCHFIELD AND BASSINGTHORPE

A country house, much reduced in size but still residential, built in 1568 for Thomas Coney. It represents a parlour block added to an earlier, much larger house of which no traces now remain. The building has been substantially altered in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The exterior is constructed of ashlar with a slate roof. The roofline features elaborate crow-stepped gables with scrolled kneelers, dentillations to the steps, and ball finials. The date 1568 is inscribed in the west gable. The chimneys are particularly notable: four tall moulded square ridge stacks in the form of classical columns, and a pair of tapering square gable stacks, all with moulded tops and bases ornamented with cable fluted friezes.

The front elevation presents three bays across three storeys with a basement and garret. A plinth, two moulded strings, and eaves courses run across the façade. The basement contains three two-light glazing-bar sliding sashes in double-chamfered recessed openings. The ground floor has single three- and two-light windows with centred arched heads to the lights, roll-moulded mullions, deeply recessed concave surrounds, and moulded hoods.

The first-floor contains a canted oriel window to the left, supported on scrolled brackets. The oriel base is ornamented with a cabled fluted frieze and features panelled sides decorated with squares and lozenges. Within it is a three-light window, followed by a further fluted frieze and a moulded cornice. Above the cornice sits a segmental dentillated pediment containing a sunk oval and surmounted by ball finials. To the right of the oriel are single three- and two-light windows with cable-fluted friezes and cornices. All windows have ashlar cross-mullions with raised edges.

A lower projecting former stair turret occupies the right side. This contains a 20th-century two-light window at ground level, a two-light mullioned window to the upper floor, and above it a moulded segmental pediment containing a rabbit—the rebus of Thomas Coney the builder. Above this is a rectangular panel bearing Coney's wool mark. Beyond the turret is a 20th-century panelled door with a two-light mullioned window above, and a further two-light mullioned window to the garret.

The rear wall contains two late 17th-century windows with ovolo-moulded mullions, probably repositioned from elsewhere. The walling here is of inferior quality, and a blocked internal door to the right indicates the house originally extended in that direction. To the right, set back, are 16th-century three-light windows to each floor, revealing that this section was the side elevation of a projecting wing. Between the two ranges stands a square turret block with a stone-coped gable, cusped gablettes, and a colonette finial of medieval character, probably reused from an earlier structure.

Interior

The basement comprises two rooms separated by a four-centred arched doorway, with unstopped beams. Elsewhere in the house, beams are chamfered with ogee stops.

The ground-floor kitchen contains a fireplace with a four-centred arched surround. The living room retains full-height mid-17th-century panelling and a 16th-century fireplace surround of ashlar, ornamented with pilasters, moulded surround, and cornice. Two similar fireplace surrounds exist on the upper floors, one featuring cable-fluted pilasters.

The first-floor oriel window contains reset medieval stained-glass fragments and has an ashlar shelf supported on moulded scrolled brackets. Behind a modern cupboard in the kitchen, at high level, is a small area of wall painting on brick, possibly depicting an eagle or foliate design within a lobed lozenge bordered by interlace edging.

The roof structure comprises cut ties with braced props.

History

Thomas Coney inherited the house in 1545 from his father, a merchant on the Calais Staple. His wife, Alice, was daughter of Thomas Leigh, Lord Mayor of London. Inventories dating to 1564 indicate that a substantial house already existed before the construction of the current building. The house has been assigned Grade I in recognition of the advanced quality of its architectural design, for which no known parallels exist.