Swainston Manor

Swainston Manor

This former manor house, now a hotel, comprises three distinct buildings reflecting different periods of construction and alteration.

The oldest structure is the south-east wing, with its north section dating from around 1177. This includes a 13th-century hall and chapel to the north. The building originally served as a manor house belonging to the Bishops of Winchester, acting as Abbots of the Monastery of St Swithin at Winchester. The 13th-century section was probably built by Richard of Ely, Bishop of Winchester from 1268 to 1280. The south front's east side displays the Great Hall of around 1177, constructed of partly flint and partly stone rubble with stone quoins. The tiled roof features tumbling into the gable. The left gable end contains an arched stone window with a blocked arch below. The front elevation presents a pointed arched doorcase to the Great Hall, approached by wooden steps, two 13th-century lancet windows and three pointed arched windows with 18th-century leaded lights. At basement level are a four-centred arched stone doorway and three brick window surrounds with 20th-century casements.

The east elevation shows an arched window with three lancets below and three circular lights above, with a cross-shaped saddlestone to the gable. Two lancets appear in the south wall, with arched doorcases at both first floor and ground floor levels. Attached to the north is a 12th-century three-storey stone rubble wing, featuring a 12th-century double lancet window to the east. The interior of the Great Hall and chapel contains a 20th-century roof of arch-braced type with curved queen posts and windbraces, likely copying the late medieval roof destroyed by an incendiary bomb in the Second World War.

The western part of the building dates from around 1750, refronted around 1790, though built on the foundations of an earlier 16th-century house. It is constructed of ashlar with cemented chimneystacks and rises to two storeys. The north front comprises a centre of three bays with two projecting wings of three bays each, all featuring 12-pane sashes. The centre ground floor displays Tuscan columns with fluted capitals, a frieze with paterae and a pediment above with balustrading. Behind the pediment are two round-headed windows and double doors. The projecting wings have pediments with three 12-pane sashes below and two three-light curved bays with 12-pane sashes.

The west front retains five sash windows from the mid-18th-century house, with a projecting early 19th-century ground floor containing five tall windows to the ballroom. To the right is a one-bay extension of around 1790 with a first-floor 12-pane sash and round-headed windows to the ground floor.

The north front is finished with a parapet bearing stone coping, a moulded cornice and stringcourse. Eight 12-pane sashes occupy the first floor, with French windows to the ground floor protected by a cast-iron balustrade featuring diamond and circle patterns. A porch with columns, round-headed arches and balustrading provides access.

The east front rises three storeys, with the upper floor of white brick and the lower floors of stone rubble. An attached 18th-century stable range, constructed of two storeys in stone rubble with brick stringcourse and tiled roof hipped at one end, displays three 12-pane sashes. The ground floor contains four cambered casements and round-headed doorcases.

The entrance hall is fitted with two pairs of Ionic columns and doorcases with reeded architraves and paterae. The lounge contains a late 18th-century marble fireplace with engaged Tuscan columns and a central panel decorated with urns, swags and paterae. The cellar retains the remains of a stone door frame dating from the late 16th or early 17th century.

The building was gutted by an incendiary bomb during the Second World War but has since been rebuilt. The earliest reference to Swainston appears in a charter of King Egbert of 827, making this the oldest standing domestic building in the Isle of Wight. Alfred Lord Tennyson is said to have composed his poem Maud here while visiting his friend Sir John Simeon.