Swannington Manor

Swannington Manor is a country house dating to circa 1700, incorporating fragments of earlier 16th-century brickwork, and substantially restored by the antiquarian Edmund Bartell (died 1855). The house is built of red brick with a pantiled roof. It has a north-south axis of two storeys and attics, with curved gables, and it has been extended to the north and to the rear with a later two-storey pile featuring five curved gables. A two-storey, L-shaped service wing extends from the north to the west and north.

The principal facade has six windows, with an additional window to the north. A blank bay, corresponding to an internal axial chimney, is located to the right of a vertical joint in the brickwork, to the right of the central porch. The facade features a brick plinth, rusticated pilasters with bases and capitals at the corners, and a moulded eaves course dating from circa 1700. A circa 1700 porch, possibly with a 19th-century curved gable, has matching rustication at its angles and an elliptical brick entrance arch. The windows are mullion and transom windows with gauged flat brick arches; the first-floor windows to the left are of circa 1700 with roll-moulded frames, wrought iron casements with spring catches and quarry lights. A three-light 19th-century Gothic window is located above the porch. Carved timber griffins support the eaves at the gables. The house has wide 19th-century eaves with paired timber brackets, and 19th-century gabled dormers with casement windows with quarry lights. The south gable wall has 20th-century windows inserted at ground floor level and circa 1700 window openings at first floor level, with a moulded brick platband above.

At the rear, a central brick projection with a 19th-century battlemented parapet incorporates 16th-century brickwork in the first storey. Scattered fenestration of 19th and 20th-century mullion and transom windows with segmental brick arches is present. The central curved gable and the gable to its right date to the mid-18th century. Other gables are of 20th-century origin. The north wing was rebuilt after a fire of circa 1960. The north service wing, dating from the 18th century and built off 16th-century brickwork on a flint plinth, has 19th and 20th-century casement windows and a hipped roof. Gable stacks have paired diagonal shafts. Rear axial and rear gable stacks are present.

The 19th-century interior contains fixtures imported from elsewhere by Bartell, including a medieval stall end in the form of a bird, against the stair newell. Three carved panels with early Renaissance mythological scenes, dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, are present. These oak panels include one with the monogram W.R., and are joined by a Lovers Knot. First-floor landing windows contain English medieval and foreign stained glass. The roof is a butt purlin roof. The scantling diminishes to the north of the brick joint of the facade.