Swannington Hall

Swannington Hall is a moated manor house dating from the 15th century and later. It is constructed of red brick, brick and flint with plain tile gable roofs.

The building has an asymmetric H-shaped plan with two storeys and attics. It features an off-centre porch to the west and outshots, with a single-storey wing of later date extending to the east.

The north-east gable of the north wing carries a part-corbelled stack comprising four octagonal shafts with bases and capitals. Off-centre axial stacks occupy the central range: the southern stack consists of four octagonal shafts with bases and capitals, while the northern stack is a circular shaft with four attached rectangular pilasters.

The west façade displays crosswings with stepped gables and moulded brick kneelers to north and south, the latter perhaps incorporating fragments of a 15th-century building. The central bay contains four 19th-century three-light mullion and transom windows in chamfered reveals to the west of the porch, with two pairs of similarly arranged windows serving the crosswings. The porch itself has a rendered three-centred arch and rectangular hood mould, with a central window, stepped gable and finial above. An off-centre entrance door of 16th-century date features battened and boarded construction with a triple-shafted frame.

The east elevation shows 19th and 20th-century windows to ground and first floors. A door with a Tudor-arched head lies adjacent to the south wing, above which is a casement window with roll-moulded mullions. The north elevation has a door with Tudor-arched head and massive frame at ground floor, with two 19th-century Gothic windows above. The south elevation displays three 19th-century four-over-four sash windows at ground and first-floor levels.

Internally, the central hall contains heavily roll-moulded principal and common joists and a 16th-century stone fireplace with a Tudor arch and roses in the spandrels. Nineteenth-century doorways with Tudor arches are also present. The parlour retains moulded principal and common joists, and moulded newels to the stairs stand in their original locations. Sixteenth-century studded partitions associate with solid tread stairs. The attic floor features stopped and chamfered transverse bridging beams supporting joists, marked with carpenters' marks. A clasped purlin roof structure covers the central range and north wing, incorporating arched braces from the principal rafter to the collar and wind braces. The principals are stopped and chamfered, cranked and reduced at their junction with the collar.

The extant moat around the current hall may relate to 12th-century occupation of the site. The earliest phase of the current building is probably the south wing, incorporating late-15th-century fabric. At the beginning of the 16th century, the hall was owned by the Richers family; John Richers' will of 1501 indicates the family had lived at the hall for some time. Later descendants of John Richers remodelled the hall approximately to its current configuration. The Bladwells occupied it at various times, and the hall has served as a farmhouse at different periods in its history.

Many building campaigns are evident in the historic fabric. The east elevation of the south wing contains flint walling below diapered brickwork. The east face of the north wing and the west face of the south wing were refronted probably in the 17th century. The west face of the north wing was refronted in the 19th century.