Manor Farmhouse And Byre

Manor Farmhouse and byre is a building dating from the 13th and 16th centuries, situated in Wheathill, Silington. The structure is built of stone rubble with ashlar dressings, covered by a plain-tile roof. It features a central 16th-century stone stack with a 20th-century brick shaft, alongside projecting gable-end stacks with brick upper shafts. The building has a roughly L-shaped plan, with a four-window north-south range and a rear cross wing. Two bays at the south of the front range represent the surviving medieval portion, now used as a byre.

The east front displays surviving medieval evidence to the left, including a tall lancet window with a stone-blocked lower section, granary steps, and evidence of similar blocked windows. The central portion showcases three 16th-century oak mullioned windows with leaded lights on the first floor, alongside a ground-floor six-panelled entrance door with glazed upper panels, sheltered by a 20th-century tiled open porch. Further right, mullion and transom windows with leaded lights are present on both floors. The return side has a projecting stone stack flanked by timber transom windows with leaded lights. The cross wing’s north wall features a three-light stone mullion with a vestigial hoodmould above a two-light casement at ground floor. Other exterior features include single-storey lean-to extensions, a large 1950s buttress, a tall cusped lancet opening, and a gable apex with an illegible inscription. The rear west side showcases tall lancets, a slit window, a boarded door with a brick segmental arch, and 20th-century additions. The rear of the cross wing incorporates 20th-century casements in earlier openings.

Inside, the south bay of the main range features heavy oak plank floorboards, likely medieval, resting on a plain bridging beam. The adjoining bay contains a 16th-century inserted first-floor frame within what was probably a medieval open hall. A 16th-century stone stack with a large Tudor-arched mantlebeam faces into the former hall. Other interior details include a 16th-century oak dogleg staircase, square-framed lateral and cross-frame internal partitions, and a complete re-roofing from the 16th century. The roof incorporates double trenched-purlins, diagonally-set ridge timbers, straight wind braces, and six trusses – two with raking struts below the collar and four with vertical struts and twin raking struts above. A truss in the south bay is closed at attic level with wattle and daub panels. The cross wing has king-post trusses.