Manor Farmhouse

Manor Farmhouse

House of mid-17th and 18th-century date, built in local narrow red and yellow brick laid in English bond on a plinth with moulded brick to the upper edge. The roof is plain tiled with modern tiles to the rear pitch, and features parapetted gable ends hipped at the angle between the front range and south wing. A saw-tooth eaves cornice runs along the front and a dentil eaves cornice along the rear. There is a ridge stack with string course, and end stacks to each of the gables, though the one to the north wing has been removed.

The house was originally of L-plan, consisting of a principal three-room north-south range with a lobby entry and a family or guest wing at the south end. A north wing was added later, at which time the north gable of the main range was rebuilt. Including the north wing, the house is now of half H-plan configuration. The front elevation is two storeys, with two first-floor 19th-century cross-frame casements with moulded wood labels and return stops, and a 20th-century metal window. A band runs between the storeys. The ground floor has similar 19th-century cross-frame casements with moulded wood labels, except for two modern windows to the north end. The lobby entry doorway sits within a later architrave but retains its original door of four vertical planks with iron cover strips. The kitchen doorway features an elliptical arch of header bricks typical of the 17th century. In this wall, the brickwork at the south end is more uniformly narrow red and yellow brick in English bond, whereas the north end has larger brickwork, particularly to the upper courses, laid in Flemish bond.

The south front to the garden is two storeys in height, built in similar narrow red and yellow brick in English bond. The first floor carries a pseudo-jetty on both north and south side walls, with the first floor carried on stepped brickwork. At both ends are kneelers of moulded brickwork at first-floor level and at eaves level to the tumbled gable-end parapet. Roof inspection indicates that this wing was originally gabled on the west end and would have had a similar parapet and kneeler. The east gable of this range, however, shows a straight joint in the brickwork, suggesting either a rebuild or later date for the stack and gable end with its tumbled parapet and moulded brick kneelers at eaves height. At eaves height there is a timber wall plate with peg holes along its lower edge; no other framing evidence survives, and this timber has probably been reused. Three first-floor window openings exist, including one that is blocked, and three full-length enlarged ground-floor windows. The rear wall of the north-south range has an original doorway opposite the stack in an elliptical header arch similar to the kitchen doorway. The 18th-century door has raised and fielded panels. The rear is two storeys with similar narrow local brickwork, though to the north end some brickwork is of larger bricks in Flemish bond. At ground-floor level a later window retains part of an original brick label.

The north wing dates to the late 17th century and is built in similar local brick, with Flemish bond at first floor and English bond to part of the ground floor. It sits on a plinth. Two storeys and an attic storey are present, with a parapetted gable end to the roof now repaired. Original labels with return stops survive to two blocked attic windows. Two first-floor windows are present, one with an original label. The north gable end of the principal range has two first-floor original window openings, one blocked, both with original labels with return stops.

Interior features are sparse from the 17th century. The centre room of the original house now contains the staircase, and the inglenook is blocked. Parts of the side purlin roof are original. Within the roof space on the side of the stack is a plaster panel with the digits 16(?)7 decipherable.

The manor of Wentworth was owned by the prior and convent of Ely and their successor after the Dissolution, the Dean and Chapter. The present owners are the Church Commissioners. During the 15th century it was let to the Scrope family of Bolton, Yorkshire, and by the late 16th century it was held by a junior branch of the same family from Hambleden, Hampshire. In 1650 the manor was sold to John Smyth of Wentworth.