Burmington Manor

Burmington Manor is a manor house with origins in the early 13th century, substantially altered and extended during the late medieval, late 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

The building is constructed of uncoursed limestone rubble of 13th-century date, with later sections of squared, coursed rubble. It has a plinth and quoins, a stone slate roof with an ashlar ridge stack featuring a moulded base and four flues linked by a moulded cornice. There are additional brick stacks, two retaining original ashlar bases. The structure is two storeys plus an attic and comprises a three-window range.

The building originally consisted of a two-bay aisled hall with a solar range to the east. The north facade displays three flush gabled bays, the easternmost being the original solar bay. At the centre of this bay is an early 13th-century blocked window of two round-headed lights beneath a round arch with an unpierced tympanum. Above it to the left is a 16th-century first-floor inserted window of three hollow-moulded round-headed lights with hood mould and label stops. The 16th-century timber-framed gable features decorative bracing. The central and western two-bay range has a 16th-century timber-studded first floor and gables, now weatherboarded. At ground floor is a large 19th-century five-light wood casement, with a further 19th-century three-light casement inserted into the first-floor studding. 20th-century two-light casements are present in the gables. A late 18th-century one-storey kitchen range projects northward from the west bay, with a tile roof, three-light casement, and a blocked doorway to the west, both with stone lintels featuring keyblocks.

The west facade, forming the gable end of the original hall range, has an 18th-century doorway to the left with stone lintel and keyblock. A 19th-century stone canted bay projects from the centre. To the first floor left is a 19th-century two-light casement, with a 17th-century ovolo-moulded three-light mullioned window with hood mould and label stops to the centre beneath the original gable. Where the 13th-century range ended at centre right is a shallow buttress. To the right, projecting south, is a 19th-century two-storey gabled range with possibly a reset 16th-century window of three hollow-moulded round-headed lights with hood moulds and label stops to the west and south. To the south is a further 19th-century projecting gable with a plank door and ovolo-moulded single stone light with hood mould and label stops. At the centre is a 19th-century stone canted bay, with a reset 16th-century window above of four hollow-moulded round-headed lights with hood mould and label stops. To the right is a 19th-century one-storey porch with a part-blocked four-centred doorway and a reset ovolo-moulded light to the right.

The east facade is the east side of the original solar, extended southward in the 19th century. To the left are 19th-century casements on each floor with semi-circular arches. At the ground floor centre is a three-light hollow-moulded mullioned window, with a 19th-century casement above and a first-floor casement to the right. A 20th-century glazed and panelled door is present at ground floor right.

The interior reveals the original plan of an aisled hall of two bays with timber arcades running the length of the hall and a one-bay arcade in each end wall. A further timber arch crossed the centre of the hall between the two central piers. The building possibly originally had a collar rafter roof with passing braces. A mutilated timber central pier survives on the ground floor along with three corbels, only one of which is recognisably intact. This corbel has a stiff-leaf capital within trumpets. Similar carving remains on a stone capital supporting the only surviving chamfered timber round arch, with remains of 13th-century carving on the central pier of this arch's timber capital.

Sixteenth-century plank flooring remains (partly replaced) along with 16th-century small-framed timber and plaster partitions. On the first floor is a 16th-century plank door with fleur-de-lys strap hinges. A 16th-century four-centred stone fireplace with chamfered stone surround and broach stop is present. The ground floor has stone flagged floors throughout and a large open fireplace with a timber bressumer featuring ogee stops. A four-centred doorway, now plastered (probably 19th century), has a chamfered surround with ogee stops. Sixteenth-century heavily moulded cross beams are present in the floor insertion of the hall range. A 16th-century wood mullioned window in the gable now faces into the 18th-century kitchen range. An 18th-century plank and moulded rail door leads into the kitchen range. Further doors include six-panelled examples and some 19th-century plank doors. Nineteenth-century staircases, one breaking through the 16th-century floor in front of the stone fireplace to the first floor, are present.

The roof contains some 13th-century smoke-blackened timbers, re-used in the 16th century. A moulded spine beam, cut lengthways, was re-used as principal rafters in one truss in the 17th century, with a 17th-century stone beam in its place in the first floor ceiling. Tenoned purlins are employed. The roof over the solar comprises two bays with two queen post trusses. One tie beam is a heavily moulded 16th-century beam, possibly cut and reset or boxed in by the later first floor ceiling. A 16th-century attic staircase remains, with baluster, finial and rail.