Mannington Hall

Mannington Hall is a large moated hall house dating from around 1460, with significant later additions primarily of 1864 and 1896. It is constructed of galletted mosaic coursing alternating whole iron-stained flints and knapped flints with Lincolnshire Limestone elements, beneath a pantile roof. The building comprises a hall, now floored, with parlour and chamber above to the right, a screens passage and service area with chamber above to the left, and a third storey throughout.

The west front rises three storeys and features stone dressings to the plinth, quoins, and embattled parapet, with a string course and gargoyle grotesques below the parapet. A large polygonal clasping turret rises to the right. The off-centre door to the screens passage to the left is set within a four-centred arch and has a hollow chamfered rendered brick square hood mould with square rebated stops. To the left is a 14th-century fragment of an unattached label stop depicting a bust of a civilian. Above and to the sides of the doorway is an inscription, mainly of 1864 in Black Letter. To the right are inserted fragments including arms in terracotta and stone. The ground and first floor windows throughout have rendered brick mullions with plain segmental heads and square brick hood moulds with square rebated label stops: to the left of the door are two lights, with four lights to the hall and four to the parlour to the right; the first floor contains four lights above the service area to the right and above the parlour to the left, with three scattered two-light windows to the centre. The second floor has five evenly spaced two-light windows in rendered brick beneath four-centred arches and hood moulds. The polygonal turret at the right angle has one square-headed two-light window to each floor.

The south façade is a single-bay gable end of the hall of two storeys and attic, with embattled polygonal clasping turrets at both right and left angles (the right-hand turret being smaller). A plain parapet to the gable bears a stone plaque at the apex, with turrets and gable parapets articulated by a string course. The windows match those on the west façade, with the same arrangement to the attic or second floor, and four leaded lights to the ground and first floors. Each floor of the left-hand turret contains one two-light square-headed window. To the right is a wide one-bay two-storey extension of 1864 to match the original, containing four-light stone mullioned windows to the ground and first floors, a platband and decorative tiles in moulded gault brick, and an embattled parapet with blank Gothic panel tracery in stone and a frieze below of moulded gault brick tiles. A clasping polygonal buttress at the right angle has a ball finial.

The east-facing return to the north has its lower part rebuilt in 1969 when a single-storey addition of 1864 was demolished; two four-light mullioned windows from the 1864 addition were inserted at that time. The upper wall of 1864 contains two four-light mullions. The parapet has blank stone Gothic panel tracery with a frieze below of moulded brick tiles—those to the north are of the 15th century, those to the south of 1864 in gault Costessey brick to match. The parapet and frieze are articulated by moulded brick pilasters. To the east is a 17th-century domestic range, refaced in 1969 in brick under pantiles; an arched doorway and four-light mullioned window of 1864 have been inserted. Chimneys to the main hall, 1864 extension, and domestic range form groups of two and four, with decorative moulded brick shafts and elaborate oversailing caps; some are in red brick of the 16th century, others in 19th-century gault brick to match.

The east front facing the moat comprises a five-bay domestic range. At the left is a two-storey brick gable of 17th-century date, with a coursed flint base and two large buttresses; mullioned windows with square hood moulds and square rebated stops of three lights at ground floor and two lights at first floor. To the left of this is a four-bay range of 1896 on old foundations, constructed of pebble flint under pantiles, with four gabled half-dormers containing three-light mullioned windows and scattered fenestration below. The north gable of this range is in pebble flint, dated 1896 on a plaque bearing the Walpole arms surmounted by a coronet. A lean-to projects from the gable and adjacent north-facing wall rising from the moat in brick under pantiles, with a curved east end.

The courtyard is approached by a bridge. The service range of 1896 to the east is built of mosaic galletted knapped flints and whole flints, with a roof in vertical stripes of black glazed and red pantiles and a parapeted gable. The ground floor has casement windows and doors beneath segmental arches, with two gabled half-dormers above. The chimneys are elaborate 19th-century moulded axial shafts—three to the left, four to the right, and one at the right gable. The north gable of the hall to the south has a large blocked window to the first floor and a two-light attic window in gault brick. To the left is a two-storey brick service range of 19th-century façade with four sashes with glazing bars to the first floor, a door, and varied fenestration to the ground floor. The chimney stack consists of four gault brick shafts, 2 by 2, above a large internal fireplace.

The interior contains a screens passage with a closed-string hall staircase of 1864 and panelling featuring an acorn frieze. A fireplace in the room to the left is lined with Dutch tiles and bears three coats of arms—one effaced, one of the Ironmongers Company, and a merchant's mark. The hall to the right has a large fireplace with a pointed segmental arch lined with Dutch tiles, set in the original external east wall. Panelling of the 16th century from Irmingland Hall is featured, with a carved frieze and three figure-head brackets over the fireplace. A round-headed arch to the right of the fireplace, with projecting keystones and imposts, leads to a dining room of 1864 which has a plaster ceiling and marble fireplace, both bearing the monogram HWW for Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford. The parlour to the right of the hall has a four-centred moulded arch to its fireplace and heraldic stained glass of around 1902.