Wilderhope Manor

Wilderhope Manor is a Grade I listed manor house in Rushbury, Shropshire. Built in the late 16th century for Francis Smallman, it is now owned by the National Trust and operates as a youth hostel. The building was restored in 1936.

The manor is constructed of stone rubble with ashlar dressings to window surrounds, quoins, hoodmoulds, mullion and transom windows, entrance porch surround, plinth cap, copings and finials on the front elevation only. The windows throughout contain rectangular leaded lights. Old stone-slate roofs with ashlar coped gables and finials front the building, while the rear features plain gables and a conical turret roof. Wide partly projecting stone eaves stacks flank each side and rear, surmounted with 3 spurred diagonal shafts with connecting oversailing caps. The south-west side has 5 shafts on a base of diapered brickwork.

The plan is approximately H-shaped with gabled extensions within the arms on each side. The building is 2-storey with attic accommodation. The south-east front displays 4 gables, with 3 projecting to the right, each containing single windows to both storeys. The windows feature stone mullions and transoms with hoodmoulds. Much original glazing remains, together with iron stanchions. Gable-head windows and upper windows to the left have 3 lights; most remaining upper-floor windows have 4 lights. The ground-floor centre-right gable window (serving the great hall) has 6 lights with additional 3-light returns; the far right gable window has 5 lights with 3-light return and a simple mullion window on the inner return wall. The porch is set in the left projecting gable and features a moulded shallow 3-centred opening leading to a recessed oak nail-studded door.

The south-west elevation has a central projecting stack with a single small window set within it to the left. The north-east side shows a central projecting stack with a single mullion window to the left at ground storey and to both storeys to the right.

The rear elevation features gables at each end; that to the right projects and contains mullion windows to each storey with single-light windows on the return wall. The left gable is partly covered by a small full-height gabled garderobe outshut and a large semicircular stair turret. Both turret and main gable have single-light windows above mullion windows. A central projecting stack in the linking wall contains a ground-storey mullion window to the left and an upper-floor mullion window to the right over a cambered doorway.

Interior features include exposed square-panelled framing on most walls, ovolo-moulded door surrounds, and decorative plastered ceilings. The hall contains cartouches in the ceiling inscribed with 'FS', '1601', and 'IESV', together with a large Tudor-arched fireplace with carved surround and a 4-centred north doorway. The parlour to the north bay has a more elaborate ceiling of star-shaped ribs and motifs, dated 1601 with 'IESV' inscribed. It contains a chamfered 4-centred fireplace with a cast fire-back dated 1669, and an early 2-panelled door with raised moulding.

Upper-floor rooms contain fireplaces with 4-centred mantelbeams with chamfered surrounds, and chamfered bridging beams with ogee stops. One small room is panelled and dated 1672. The stair turret features a conical roof with a 4-centred chamfered beam and a winder staircase of solid oak blocks turning around a tall central newel post that rises through both storeys.

The south cross wing has a 4-bay twin trenched-purlin roof with chamfered purlins and trusses with collar and no tie beam. The main range has a 4-bay twin trenched-purlin roof (single to the north) with 5 collar trusses. The north cross wing has a 4-bay twin purlin roof.