Wolverton Manor

Wolverton Manor is a farmhouse, formerly a manor house, located in Eaton-under-Heywood in rural south Shropshire. It comprises a late 15th-century hall range with several phases of addition and alteration spanning the later 16th to mid 17th centuries.

The building is largely timber-framed with a long, one-and-a-half and two-storey form arranged in an attenuated T-plan. It consists of a long hall range of approximately 1475 with an originally detached cross wing of approximately 1581 at the south end. The walls are rendered and whitewashed, the roof is tiled, and there are three brick chimney stacks, rebuilt in the 20th century above the roof line. Most windows and doors are 20th-century replacements, as is a screen wall at the north end that conceals oil tanks.

The two-bay hall was originally open to the roof and may have been built against an existing structure later demolished. It employs two-tier crucks and has a spere truss whose aisle posts and other elements are moulded and trefoiled. The roof displays comparatively plain trusses and two tiers of cusped windbraces. In the later 16th century when the cross wing was constructed, the hall's lower bay was converted to a smoke bay and a finely detailed, moulded, chequerboard-pattern timber ceiling was inserted in the upper bay. Decorative bosses were removed in the mid 20th century and replaced by replicas in the late 20th century. The main stack was built in the smoke bay circa 1660, and the elaborately moulded beam over the fireplace may originally have hung over the dais.

The hall is separated by a former screens passage from a two-bayed service unit to the north, now the kitchen. North of this is the rear entrance hall, beyond which is an added 17th-century bay now used as a utility room and office. Around 1600 a link, now the main entrance hall, was built between the hall and cross wing, and a cellar was excavated beneath the cross wing. The main room in the wing, to the west, has panelling on the lower part of one wall and exposed square framing with heavy ceiling joists. Behind is the present dining room, also with exposed joists and framing. A solid-treaded timber stair rises to the first floor where the original roof structure is exposed in a landing along the north side of the wing.

Wolverton was originally part of the manor of Eaton-under-Heywood. Before 1255 it was subinfeudated by the prior of Wenlock and became, in effect, a separate manor. Its descent can be traced in detail from the early 17th century, at which time it was owned by the Jenkes family, who were armigerous and traced their family's tenure of Wolverton back to before the early 14th century. It descended through the family and by marriage until sold in the late 18th century to the Becks, who by the mid 19th century had 306 acres at Wolverton. The property has changed hands numerous times since then. During the 20th century numerous utilitarian alterations were made and most of the timber-framing was covered up; it was revealed through gradual restoration in the late 20th century.