Manor Farmhouse

Manor house, now farmhouse. The building dates from the late 14th or early 15th century, extended in the late 16th century and partly rebuilt in 1775, with later additions and alterations. It is timber framed, partly of cruck construction, with rendered infill on a rubblestone plinth. The south front of the hall range has regularly coursed and dressed limestone, while roughly coursed limestone rubble appears below the tie beam of the west wing on the north side. The roofs are machine tile.

The original plan was a long open-hall range aligned east-west with a 3-bay projecting cross-wing on the east. The hall range was floored over in the late 16th century and a wing was added to the west, forming the present H-plan. The building is one storey and attic to the hall range, with two storeys to the cross-wings and a cellar beneath the east wing.

The timber framing consists of square panels—four from cill to wall-plate to the east wing and more irregular panels to the north gable and hall range, with curving tension braces to the east wing. The north gable has a slightly cambered collar and tie beam with V-struts from the collar; the south gable is rendered. The west wing has close-set vertical posts to its west side, largely renewed towards the north end. The south gable is jettied to the attic with a moulded bressumer and elaborately carved corner brackets. The first floor has herringbone bracing and twisted corner colonettes. The attic has a collar and tie beam end truss with projecting double-purlin ends. The ground floor of the gable and west wall is underbuilt in red brick. The north gable has a collar and tie beam end truss with V-struts from the collar.

The fenestration is irregular on the north front of the hall range and to the east wall of the east wing. The hall range has three early 19th-century leaded casements directly below the eaves, carried up above the wall-plate to form gabled eaves dormers, and four leaded casements to the ground floor, some of which are 20th-century imitations. A boarded door is positioned to the far right in the angle with the west wing. The east wing has a 17th-century four-light wooden mullioned and transomed latticed window to the left and two 18th-century latticed cross-windows in framing panels to the right. Two 19th-century mullioned and transomed windows flank a cross-window to the ground floor. A boarded door, glazed to the top, is to the far right of the north gable. The fenestration is more regular to the south side. The east wing has a 19th-century mullioned and transomed window to the first floor and a mid-20th-century French window to the ground floor. There are 19th-century gabled eaves dormers to the left and right of the hall range, the former with a 20th-century casement, positioned directly above a 19th-century mullioned and transomed window (left) and a wide 20th-century casement (right). A boarded door with a narrow rectangular barred overlight is immediately to the left of centre, with a semi-circular hood and a lozenge-shaped datestone beneath, inscribed "E/lB/1775", which probably refers to the rebuilding of this wall in stone. The west wing has a 3-light leaded casement to the first floor and a 3-light mullioned and transomed window to the ground floor.

The building has a large brick ridge stack with four attached and rebated shafts at the centre of the hall range and ridge stacks to the east and west wings at their junction with the hall range, the former with twin diamond-shaped shafts. There are integral lateral stacks to the outer walls of the east and west wings, both with stone bases and twin diamond-shaped brick shafts. The tops of all the stacks have been rebuilt in 20th-century brown brick. A lower gabled rubblestone outbuilding is attached to the north gable of the west wing and has a collar and tie beam end truss with V-struts from the collar.

The interior's main feature is a massive true cruck truss, roughly to the centre of the hall range (to the east of the doorway on the south side, where it has been partly cut away), resting on a huge sole-plate. Each blade is sharply elbowed and broadly flanged with seven deep grooves; a massive dovetail joint is visible to the south blade on the first floor. The apex, not inspected at the time of resurvey in July 1986, is said to survive in the roof space (Alcock apex-type B). A pair of arch-braced principal rafters appears to the east of the cruck truss, and similar principal rafters are visible to the east wing. The main ground-floor room (to the east of the cruck truss) has an inserted late 16th or early 17th-century deep-chamfered cross-beam ceiling with triangular-shaped joists. Other ground-floor rooms have chamfered ceiling beams. The ground floor has ceramic tile floors and the first-floor rooms have wide oak floorboards. A lower gabled outbuilding, converted to a laundry in the 19th century, has a stone-flagged floor, a circular cast-iron sink with furnace below, and a large bread oven.