Sawtrees Manor

House. Dating from the 15th century or earlier, Sawtrees Manor was extensively enlarged in the mid-16th century, with a 17th-century parlour wing added to the south. The property was recorded as the capital messuage of the manor of Sawtrees in the 15th century. The house is timber-framed and plastered, with steep roofs covered in old red tiles. Red brick sill walls and chimneys are also present.

The western end of the house represents the oldest section; originally an open hall, it now consists of two bays with a floor inserted. This wing is hipped and features a gablet, and contains a single-framed collar rafter roof significantly darkened by smoke. A diamond-mullioned window on the north side is contemporary with the inserted floor, likely dating to the 17th century. A former bay of the hall was removed when a long, jettied range was added in the mid-16th century, extending to the east and facing south. The western room of this range probably served as a new hall, with a pantry and buttery off the passage in the following bay to the east. A two-bay parlour features a decorative crown-post roof over a long chamber above. External lateral chimneys are positioned on the north side, near each end of the range.

A further phase of building occurred in the 17th century, during which a three-bay, two-story cellar and attic wing was built at a right angle to the front of the jettied range, incorporating a winding stair and a new entrance in the bay adjacent to the older structure. This wing has a lateral chimney on the west side, next to the door, which is now blocked. At the same time, a new floor was inserted in the original 15th-century hall, and a central brick chimney was built off the floorbeams of the upper floor of the 16th-century range.

The resulting house is now in the shape of a 'T'. The walls are roughcast, with three-light casement windows on the upper floor and flush box sash windows with six/six panes on the ground floor of the long range, and two/two panes in the 17th-century gabled front wing. A boarded door features a small-paned window above. Hollow-chamfered curved brackets support the jetty.

Internally, there's evidence of inserted diamond-mullioned, three-light windows to the upper floor of the 15th-century hall. The 16th-century range has elaborate moulded axial beams over the ground floor rooms, a collar-rafter single-framed roof over its western bay, and a collar-purlin and crown-post roof with braces covering the remainder. The chamber above the pantry features a four-centred brick fireplace. The 17th-century wing has fine, small, panelled wainscotting with a channelled frieze, mitred mouldings, and a cornice to the upper room. A blocked, hollow-chamfered mullioned window from the jettied range is exposed in the staircase leading to the attic.

Sawtrees Manor is a significantly altered late medieval manor house of considerable interest and an important element within the surrounding landscape.