Popes Manor

Popes Manor is a large country house, now offices, located in landscaped grounds. The core of the house dates from the late 17th and early 18th centuries, with substantial alterations and extensions in the late 19th century. It was further altered and restored in 1983-84. The house is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond, with tiled and hipped and gabled roofs of varying heights. The original plan was rectangular, later extended to the north, east, and south.

The house is two or three storeys high, with a cellar, and features several chimneys with offset heads and tall clay pots. Most windows are sash windows, largely with glazing bars. The south-west front, representing the oldest part of the house, was originally symmetrical. It features a weathered plinth, string courses at the first and second floor window heads, and a parapet above a cornice band. Segment-headed sash windows with glazing bars are set within near-flush architrave frames, defined by gauged, segmental brick arches. A centrally positioned entrance is framed by a C19 double door of eight fielded panels within a Tuscan doorcase featuring a swan-neck pediment and central shell ornament, approached by three steps. To the right is a blank end, representing a C19 re-fronting of the south-east front, and to the left a late C19 two-storey extension of five irregular bays in a similar style. A late C19, single-storey wing containing the former billiards room projects from this extension at a right angle, with hipped gables on the west and south, and sash windows.

The oldest section of the house retains window shutters, mostly complete, panelled and enriched with leaf ornament. The reception area contains an 18th-century dog-leg staircase with column-on-vase balusters and a moulded, wreathed handrail, with the string partially enclosed by a later partition. Panelled walls, partly 18th-century and partly 20th-century replacements, are present, along with a moulded ceiling cornice. A fireplace features egg-and-dart enrichment on a plain, eared surround. The engineers office has a moulded cornice with scroll and leaf enrichment and paterae at intervals, along with a marble fireplace with colonnettes and a marble shelf. The architects office has a moulded ceiling cornice with acanthus and anthemion leaf enrichment, a black and white marble chimneypiece with swags and cherubs in the frieze, a moulded architrave enriched with bead and leaf ornament, a frieze with garlands and urns, and a dentilled, moulded cornice. The Managing Director's office contains a cast-iron fire hob and grate in a plain marble surround, framed by egg-and-dart and bead and reel ornament, with a moulded wood shelf. A further Managing Director’s office incorporates a cast-iron fire hob and grate in a plain marble surround and a frieze with garlands. The former billiards room reveals an exposed 19th-century roof of three bays, with a moulded arch-braced truss featuring drop finials on moulded brackets and cornice. A king post truss is present in the hipped bay on the south. An east wall fireplace has a panelled overmantel, pedimented with heraldic arms, leaf ornament, and an inscription reading 'Timor omnis abesto.'

The house is reportedly the boyhood home of Alexander Pope.