Wolverton Manor

Wolverton Manor is a large manor house of Grade I importance, built in the late 16th century by Sir John Dingley and completed during the reign of James I, with 18th-century alterations. It stands at Shorwell on the Isle of Wight.

The main front faces south-east and is E-shaped in plan. The house is constructed of ironstone ashlar with Portland stone dressings, featuring moulded stone bands between floors and a plinth. The roof is tiled with five lower courses of stone slates, and there are three brick chimneystacks. The building rises to two storeys with a basement and attics in the gable ends.

The centre section displays five windows and a central porch of two storeys, which does not quite reach the parapet. The porch is built of Portland stone with octagonal angle columns and a cornice above each floor, and has a four-centred arched doorway with carved spandrels. Behind this is an eight-panelled wooden door with a recessed diamond panel above and a 1-3-light casement window. To the north of the porch are two mullioned and transomed stone windows with two tiers of three lights each. To the south are two twelve-pane sash windows in stone surrounds.

The projecting wings have gables with attic windows, elaborate kneelers and stone coping. The north wing has one casement window facing east; the ground floor displays a diamond-shaped blank with elaborate carving at the corners. The inner face of the north wing contains two casement windows. The north side features a massive ironstone external chimneybreast with two diagonally-placed brick stacks, one gable and four mullioned windows. The south wing has one six-pane sash to the attic and two twelve-pane sashes to other fronts. The south wall has a similar ironstone external chimneybreast with two diagonally-placed brick stacks, one sash with keystone and a gable with a double-mullioned window to the attic.

The west front has a central two-storey projection containing a blocked 18th-century Venetian window. This projection was intended to house a staircase leading from the Great Hall, which was never built; instead the space became a brewhouse open to the roof. To the right are three twelve-pane sash windows, one of which is double on the first floor, a mullioned and transomed casement and a four-centred stone doorcase. To the left are casement windows and a massive external ironstone chimneybreast with two diagonally-placed brick stacks and a diagonal buttress.

The main hall contains a four-centred arched stone fireplace with a shield and foliage in the spandrels, along with early 17th-century panelling. The Billiard Room features an identical stone fireplace. The south wing contains an extremely fine Chinese Chippendale staircase with fretwork balustrading, scrolled tread ends, and corner posts with quatrefoil designs at the top and detachable urn finials. An 18th-century doorcase with Greek key design is also present. The north wing has a Jacobean solid well staircase with a centre of square framing and brick stairs.

The cellar contains what is probably a smuggler's hide, now plastered over. One first-floor bedroom retains early 17th-century panelling and a scrolled overmantel with a stone four-centred arched fireplace with paterae in the spandrels. Another room has a Bath stone four-centred arched fireplace with paterae to each spandrel and a stone overmantel. The north wing contains a room with a first-floor stone fireplace with blank spandrels. At the time of survey, the Billiard Room's early 17th-century overmantel with two male and two female curved caryatids and the Great Chamber's overmantel with four caryatids, pilasters and the arms of Sir John Dingley impaling Hammond were undergoing restoration in another part of the house.

Wolverton was one of the original Domesday Manors. The present house replaced an earlier moated dwelling to the north.