The Old Manor House

A small country house dating from circa 1650, built for Mr Wingfield of Shrewsbury, with a significant addition of around 1700. The house is shown on Ordnance Survey maps as Preston Hall and stands high above the hamlet of Preston Brockhurst, forming a group with associated walls, gate piers and outbuildings.

Exterior

The building is constructed in yellow and grey sandstone ashlar with a graded slate roof. It displays a shallow E-plan with a rear addition, rising to two storeys and an attic over a basement. The design features a chamfered plinth, two dripmoulds, and parapeted gables with moulded copings. The roofline is punctuated by a pair of stone ridge stacks and an integral lateral stone stack to the left; each of these consists of three square shafts with moulded bases and cornices. An external stone stack in the angle at the rear comprises three circular shafts with curious draught vents at the base of each.

The front elevation is divided into three gabled bays and contains five windows. These are of 2-, 3- and 4-light designs with double-chamfered stone mullions and transoms. The central attic window is stepped over a boarded balcony door with chamfered surround, while the left-hand attic window has a small rectangular window to its right.

A central two-storey porch projects from the front, with a chamfered plinth, moulded set-forwards to the first floor and parapet. The parapet is fitted with square-section balusters and a moulded rail. The original door is nail-studded boarded with strap hinges and a chamfered reveal, surrounded by a bolection surround. A stone Doric doorcase of approximately 1700 frames the entrance, featuring fluted pilasters, an entablature with central pendant breaking forward over the pilasters, and a broken triangular pediment. The pediment tympanum contains a cartouche with a carved raven.

The left-hand return front comprises two bays with 3-light windows. The rear contains a central gabled wing of around 1700, with three bays and double-chamfered cross windows, a moulded string course, and a continuous dripstone over the first-floor windows.

Interior

The interior retains almost complete seventeenth and eighteenth century fittings, alongside some late nineteenth century alterations.

The entrance hall features a late nineteenth century fireplace with a bolection moulded surround, flanking pilasters, a pulvinated frieze with oak leaf ornament, a dentil cornice and the Elephant and Castle device above; wainscot panelling lines the walls.

The left-hand ground-floor room contains a mid- to late seventeenth century moulded stone fireplace, with a smaller inserted nineteenth century fireplace inset. The kitchen preserves a large open fireplace with a substantial stone cornice. The dining room, located in the rear wing, features complete eighteenth century fittings including bolection-moulded panelling with a dado rail and moulded cornice, and a matching bolection-moulded fireplace with pulvinated frieze and cornice.

The main staircase dates from around 1700 and comprises four flights with landings arranged around a square well. It features a closed string, twisted balusters, a ramped moulded handrail, and large newels composed of four twisted balusters each. The dado panelling is ramped and bolection-moulded, with twisted half-balusters at intervals. Two sections of an earlier mid-seventeenth century staircase survive: one in the cellar with a closed string, splat balusters, a moulded grip rail, and a square foot newel post with chamfered corners; the other at the top of the eighteenth century staircase, featuring a closed string with winders and landings, splat balusters, a moulded grip rail, and moulded newel posts with pierced and globe finials. A short section of seventeenth century staircase to the attic retains splat balusters, a moulded handrail, and a square newel post. An eighteenth century back staircase with landings and square newel posts is lined with eighteenth century wainscot panelling.

The left-hand bedroom contains a nineteenth century fireplace with moulded surround and moulded cornice. The central bedroom, which is now divided, preserves a fireplace of around 1700 with a bolection-moulded surround and moulded cornice. The right-hand bedroom has a small fireplace with a bolection-moulded surround, pulvinated frieze and moulded cornice. The bedroom in the rear wing retains complete eighteenth century fittings, including bolection-moulded dado panelling with a dado rail, and a fireplace with a bolection-moulded surround, pulvinated frieze and moulded cornice. A pilastered overmantel features a central panel and deep entablature with pulvinated frieze and moulded cornice. A false cupboard in the bathroom over the stairs is notable.

Throughout the house, the roofs employ collar and tie-beam trusses with queen struts and V-struts; purlins are staggered with wind braces. General internal features include timber-framed partition walls, chamfered beams with ogee stops, and seventeenth and eighteenth century boarded doors alongside eighteenth century doors with raised and fielded panels.

History

According to Richard Gough's Antiquityes and Memoryes of the Parish of Myddle (1701), Sir Vincent Corbet was obliged to sell some of his lands to raise money to pay compensation to Parliament for his support of the Royalists during the Civil War. Mr Wingfield purchased land in Preston Brockhurst and, as Gough records, "pulled down the hall, and built there a fair hall of freestone, where his son now dwelleth". The house and its associated land returned to the Corbet family in 1743.