Manor House

Former manor house and farmhouse at Great Cressingham, consisting of a principal block with later additions forming an L-shaped plan within a rectangular moated site. The property bears moulded brick monograms of John and Elizabeth Jenny, who acquired it in 1542. The principal block dates to the mid-16th century with a later 16th-century addition to the rear.

The principal block is constructed of brick with terracotta dressings and plain tile roofs. It rises two storeys with an attic. The facade is articulated with three polygonal turrets: outer ones clasping the angles and a central turret forming a chimney stack. The front elevation features three restored 19th-century mullion and transom windows and a restored two-leaf door with a three-light rectangular fanlight. Ground floor openings sit beneath original terracotta rectangular hood moulds. Three original moulded single-light arched windows occupy the ground floor of the west turret, with two single-light arched windows on the east side of the eastern turret.

The first floor is decorated with terracotta blind tracery in a distinctly Medieval reticulated motif, with Jenny monograms and crests stamped onto terracotta panels within the tracery. A highly elaborate horizontal frieze forms the base to the tracery, consisting of inverted cusped interlaced arcading with leaf motifs. The central turret is reduced to a plain rectangular block carrying a pair of octagonal chimney shafts. The lateral turrets are truncated just above eaves level.

The rear wall comprises two bays with three original two-light windows, two with median transoms and hollowed-out spandrels to arched heads. One window is blocked and a smaller window sits above a doorway. A four-centred doorway of two moulded orders is present, with rectangular hood moulds to all openings. Traces of stucco patterning of diagonally set squares and cusped panels imitating flushwork survive. The terracotta frieze matches the main facade, and an elaborate plinth with terracotta blind tracery is visible. Half of the rear facade now forms the interior wall of the addition, retaining two original windows (one possibly re-set with reversed mouldings), a four-centred doorway, restored stucco flushwork, and continuation of the frieze and plinth.

Gable-ends are heavily repaired with an added external stack to the east. A connecting wall to the west of the principal block contains a limestone four-centred carriage entrance in Perpendicular style with shafts and blind-traceried spandrels. A truncated turret west of the archway matches the main block turrets, with remains of a similar turret at the western extremity of the wall. The wall is largely rebuilt but retains some original sections with a black header chevron pattern. Nineteenth-century crenellated parapets and modern lean-to sheds to the rear are later additions.

The rear block follows a lobby entrance type plan with two storeys and an attic. The ground floor brickwork exhibits traces of diaper pattern, with some areas rebuilt. Simple pargetted patterning of inverted semi-circles with arrowheads sits beneath the eaves on the eastern side. Twentieth-century fenestration in sympathetic style includes metal casements and leaded glazing. The west facade features an off-centre axial doorway opposite a stack and four flat-roofed dormers. A returned brick gable-end bears a datestone reading 1674 with initials E.O.I., probably marking the reconstruction of the gable-end. Modern French windows and a plain doorcase are present.

Interior features of the main block include two arched fireplaces to the central turret stack. The western turret was converted into a dovecote, with nesting boxes roughly fashioned from re-used terracotta mouldings. The roof is 20th-century in date. The rear block contains roll-moulded beams to both floors, with first-floor ceilings having three roll-moulded bridging joists to each bay. The roof appears to be later, possibly of 1674, with collars and butt-purlins. Stencilling appears on some ground-floor beams in the northernmost room. A re-positioned carved bracket of interest features a grotesque head on one side and a flower motif on the other.

The site retains one block of the former courtyard plan in the south-east corner, with the lower part of the front wall of an adjacent block still standing. Other buildings are evidenced only by fragmentary foundations.