The Old Manor House With Attached Railings And Gate

The Old Manor House with attached railings and gate stands on Church Street in Blackmore. This early 19th-century house is built of gault and red brick in Flemish bond, roofed with slate, and follows a shallow rectangular plan facing south with a gable end to the street. The main building is two storeys with two internal rear stacks. A two-storey lean-to service range extends to the right with a stack set in the junction wall, followed by a short one-storey wing with attic and external stack. A single-storey weatherboarded and slated corridor lean-to runs the full length of the rear, added at an early date.

The front elevation displays symmetrical design. The main range is faced in gault bricks while the remainder uses red bricks. The ground floor contains two original sashes with 3+6 lights and slender glazing bars beneath flat brick arches, fitted with original external louvred shutters. The first floor has three original sashes with 6+6 lights and matching glazing bars and arches. The lower right window is teak and the others pine; all were conservatively repaired around 1988. A central five-panel door with heavy mouldings and glazed top panel sits within an original wooden porch supported by two round columns with simple bases and caps on either side, approached by two stone steps. The roof is low-pitched with wide overhanging eaves. The service range steps back at each stage, with two cast-iron casements on the ground floor and one on the first floor, some containing crown glass beneath segmental arches. Cement render forms a dado at the front and left side. The gable end features many blue headers and a moulded wooden cornice forming a pediment.

Wrought-iron railings and a gate are attached at the front left corner. The railings comprise wrought-iron stanchions with cranked stays and spearheads, originally topped with three cast-iron urn terminals (three exact replicas were being cast at Rayne Foundry in 1989), all mounted on a cast-iron sill on a brick plinth. The gate has a dipped top rail and original spring latch, entirely of wrought iron.

Interior features are almost entirely original. A central stair hall contains six-panel doors to each side with reeded architraves and paterae. The stair itself features turned pine newels, stick balusters, and a mahogany handrail beneath a semi-elliptical arch. First-floor doors comprise a half-glazed door to the middle room and two-panel pine doors to the side rooms, with a similar door with planted mouldings serving the first floor of the service range. Folding shutters remain to the ground-floor windows. Both ground-floor fireplaces are original with cast-iron reeded architraves and paterae. The first-floor fireplaces were blocked in 1988; one retains a similar original cast-iron surround (still on the premises as of January 1989), while the other was replaced around 1900.

A special feature is the rear external wall, which displays fine incised lines in the mortar and has been preserved in excellent condition by the early addition of the lean-to corridor. The original external brickwork is limewashed. The original louvred shutters warrant special care in any future work.

The boundary wall to the east of the property bears a stone tablet inscribed with the date 1839 and the names J N GODFREY, indicating the wall was built and owned by that person in that year.