Landguard Manor

Landguard Manor is a country house, later used as a hotel, dating from around the mid-18th century. The house was significantly extended and remodelled in 1878 for Colonel H. Atherley, and again in 1906. The construction uses random stone rubble with freestone dressings; the south range has a Flemish bond red brick front and ashlar gable ends, while the 1906 wing is of ashlar. The roof is covered with plain clay tiles and has stone-coped gable ends. Stone axial stacks feature grouped diagonal shafts.

The original house comprised a south-facing garden front range with a central entrance. In 1878, a large Jacobethan-style range was added to the north, creating a new main entrance on the east side, along with extensive service wings. The 1906 remodelling involved the installation of a central, atrium-like hall with a staircase, and the addition of a guest wing to the west.

The interior is arranged over two storeys and an attic. The east front is asymmetrical, with gables to the left and right. The left gable displays a blind window and a stone inscription "H.A.1878". Projecting gables and service wings extend to the north. Mullion-transom windows are moulded. A doorway, originally at the centre, has been replaced with a four-pane sash window. The brick south front includes a platband and stone quoins, with a pattern of two bays, one bay, then two bays. The ground floor windows are four-pane sashes with flat arches, while the first floor windows are twelve-pane sashes with cambered arches. The west side features the symmetrical 1906 ashlar wing, with a moulded stone cornice, an arcaded loggia flanked by oculi, and four sashes above. A nowy-headed tablet at the centre is inscribed “H.A.E. AD 1906.” The rear is gabled.

The interior is predominantly the result of the 1906 remodelling, showcasing Neo-Georgian joinery. A prominent feature is the galleried, atrium-like central hall, with two tiers of colonnades (Tuscan below and Composite above) and a broad, open-well staircase with a heavy balustrade. The two south rooms contain circa early 20th-century marble chimneypieces. Various carved wood chimneypieces are present, one in the former billiard room with an overmantel flanked by twisted balusters, likely reused from the 18th-century staircase. The 1906 wing also includes bolection moulded joinery and an axial corridor on the first floor with a plaster barrel vault.

Landguard is mentioned in the Domesday Book. Queen Victoria is reputed to have visited the Atherleys at Landguard during a stay at Osborne.