Wightwick Manor

Wightwick Manor is a house now owned by the National Trust. Built in 1887 and extended in 1893, it was designed by Edward Ould for Theodore Mander, with interior design by William Morris and C.E. Kempe.

The house is constructed in brick with ashlar dressings and timber framing, with tile roofs and brick stacks. It was originally built to an L-plan with a west wing and north service wing with a square tower at the angle, and was later extended to a T-plan with an east guest wing. The style is Vernacular Revival.

The south garden facade displays two storeys with a five-window range to the west. The first floor is timber-framed with two projecting gables and a right-end cross wing featuring enriched bargeboards. The ground floor has cusped elliptical-headed lights within brick-mullioned windows, while the first floor contains mostly canted timber oriels and a small balcony to the left of the right-end wing. A single-storey hall range to the east has a two-storey cross wing, with timber framing on an ashlar plinth and richly carved bressummers and bargeboards. The hall features a large gabled bay window with enriched timber mullioned and transomed windows containing leaded glazing; other windows are similar. The cross wing has paired canted first-floor oriels and a gabled dormer to the left. The east return continues this treatment with end cross wings, extended to the north gable end. Many stacks have oversailing caps, with those to the east wing featuring richly moulded shafts. The north elevation of the west wing displays two gables with an ingle stack to the right, and a gabled timber-framed two-storey porch projects at an angle with an inscription over a battened door. The tower has an embattled parapet. The service wing has simpler details and a hipped roof with tile hanging to the first floor and a plastered east elevation. A small kitchen court lies between the service wing and east wing.

The interior contains Morris wallpapers and fabric hangings throughout, some brought in during the twentieth century, with contemporary electric light fittings by Benson. The drawing room has an ingle fireplace with window seat, panelled dado, fabric hangings, moulded cornice and ceiling, and Kempe glass from his house (Old Place), along with a fireplace featuring de Morgan tiles. The hall contains re-used seventeenth-century panelling from Old Manor, a window seat, and Kempe glass. The library has shelving and panelling with a tiled fireplace and monochrome overmantel painting. The morning room features cupboards with Spanish-style ironwork and a fireplace with de Morgan tiles. The great parlour has a painted arch-braced roof with panelling, fabric hangings over panelling with painted relief plaster frieze above, a large ingle fireplace with seats and tiles, and two ogee-headed entrances to the west end. The billiard room contains an ingle fireplace with tiles and copper hood, a dais with balustrading, plaster ceiling, and window seat. The dining room has a plaster ceiling and built-in sideboard. The stair has turned balusters. First-floor guest rooms feature wall hangings, wallpapers, and fireplaces, while family rooms are simpler, with some fireplaces and built-in cupboards, and some seventeenth-century panelling from Old Manor House.

The house is an important example of late nineteenth-century architecture and design, containing much work by the leading designers of the day and representing one of only a few such houses of its calibre.