Nuns' Manor

Nuns' Manor is a house dating to the mid-16th century, with extensions added in the late 17th century. It is timber-framed and now plaster-rendered, with tiled roofs and a 19th-century ridge stack and end stack. Originally a double-ended hall house, the principal elevation was initially on the south side. The house has two storeys, with the first floor of the east crosswing jettied on the south side; the north-side jetty is a modern addition. Modern windows and doorways feature throughout. A lobby entry doorway was added later, and it is believed an original through passage existed within the east crosswing.

The west crosswing was extended on the south side in the late 17th or early 18th century using red brick in English bond, which has been rendered and covered with a tiled roof. This extension likely comprised a single room added to the parlour end of the house.

Inside, the main hall features two bays with a narrower chimney bay, and intersecting stop-chamfered ceiling beams. The hearth was rebuilt in the 19th century, and materials from it were reused when the house was converted into three cottages. The north side of the ground floor includes ceiling beams extended by approximately two feet, a feature not replicated in the tie beams at the first floor. The display truss shows an arch braced tie beam. The clasped side purlin roof timbers are substantial and uniform, although the roof over the fire bay has been rebuilt. Evidence of a screen at ground floor and a doorway leading to a cross passage is visible in the east crosswing’s original north wall, which is now internal. In this wall, there are two locations where diamond mullions once supported a window. There is close studwork and curved downward bracing within the internal wall framing. The roof is of clasped side purlin type with paired wind bracing. A window once existed in the east wall of this crosswing. The west crosswing, facing the road, also has two bays; it may have once been jettied, but this is now hidden by the later brick extension. A three-light window, now internal, sits in the south wall at ground floor, featuring bolection moulded mullions. Close studding is present in the partition wall between the chamber and the hall at first floor. Reused materials were incorporated into the roof of this crosswing. The single-room C17 south extension includes an outshut on the west and has a roof of a similar type but with lighter timber. It is reputed that the antiquarian John Layer lived at Nuns' Manor.