Jenningsbury

Farmhouse, formerly a moated manor, now house. Built in the late 16th or early 17th century, altered and extended in the early 20th century. Timber-framed construction with plaster render, pebbledashed and colourwashed finish. Old tile roofs with gables above two left-hand windows on the south elevation. Red brick chimneys, including one with an external chimney breast on the south elevation and another on the west side.

The building is planned as a linear house, possibly originally with a lobby entry arrangement, comprising six main bays. Early 20th-century extensions on the north side create a continuous corridor at ground and first-floor levels. The north-west range contains a two-storey service wing with kitchen and dairy, adjoined by a single-storey north-west wing containing attics.

The south elevation displays six small-paned wood casement windows on the first floor: two 3-light windows at the left, three windows of 1- and 2-light in the centre, and one 2-light window to the right of the external chimney breast. A late 20th-century timber-studded gabled porch with brick base and old tile roof occupies the centre. To its left is an early 20th-century 4-light wood casement bay window with flat roof, and further left a 3-light casement. The substantial external chimney breast rises on the right, with a 2-light casement window at the far right. The rear (north) elevation has a recessed centre with early 20th-century modillion cornice at the eaves and a projecting flat-roofed rear porch at ground level with similar cornice detail. The north-west wing was recently extended above the former dairy. Other elevations feature scattered small-paned wood casement windows with early 20th-century exposed timber studding in the main gable ends.

Interior timberwork remains exposed in several rooms. The south-east room, now the kitchen, retains a central chamfered beam with mortices for studs (now cut away) that formerly subdivided the space into two service rooms; a plate visible in the rear wall shows a mortice for studwork. Main beams throughout are chamfered with tongue stops. The first-floor landing contains a post with a cut-off ball, formerly part of a tie beam now replaced by a cased steel joist. A tie-beam truss remains against the fireplace in the central bedroom with one original brace still in place. The south-east bedroom is ceiled at collar level and contains a 19th-century cast-iron grate with paterae; the north-east bedroom has an early 20th-century Art Nouveau pattern cast-iron grate. The roof features halved and pegged rafters, some replaced with 20th-century sawn timber, with clasped purlins above principal collars and carpenters' marks visible on the rafters.

Jenningsbury is recorded as a moated homestead with much of the original moat still extant, enclosing approximately four acres with the former manor farmhouse and yard at its centre. The manor was held by the Earl of Pembroke in 1303, passed to the Gardiner family in the 16th century, and was succeeded by the Dunsters who retained it until 1791, when the farm was sold to George Townshend, Earl of Leicester, to become the home farm for Balls Park, subsequently owned by the Faudel-Phillips family. The north-east elevation reflects the provenance of the early 20th-century alterations. A long red brick garden wall to the north of the house is listed separately.