Merston Manor

Merston Manor is a house, originally a manor house, built in 1605 by Edward Cheke and restored in the 19th century, specifically 1895. The facade is red brick in English bond with stone dressings, but the rear elevation is stone, and the roof is tiled. It is an E-plan house of two storeys and attics, with five windows. A stone stringcourse serves as a dripmould above the ground-floor windows, and there's a deep stone plinth and ashlar quoins. The projecting wings have gables with stone coping and finials, including ball finials on the kneelers. Most windows are casement windows with stone mullions and transoms, containing four or five lights.

The projecting wings have two-storey bays dating back to approximately 1895. A central, projecting two-storey porch features a pediment displaying the dates 1605 and 1895. The stone doorway has an obtusely pointed head, a dripstone, and shields and spandrels. The rear elevation is stone and features five mullioned windows.

The lounge has a stone fireplace with a four-centred arch and a particularly fine oak overmantel, featuring two herms, female figures holding cornucopiae, strutwork motifs, marquetry inlay, and fluted Ionic pilasters. Two earlier 17th-century overmantels were removed from the first floor during the 1895 alterations and placed in this room; one displays two herms and a female figure in attitudes of prayer, with lion’s head masks and fluted pilasters, and the other features a frieze depicting accoutrements of war, strapwork panels with Tudor roses, and elaborate pilasters. The room also has elaborate plank and muntin panelling, a frieze, and a concealed cupboard with cock's head hinges. The sitting room contains a four-centred arched stone fireplace.

Merston Manor is one of the original Domesday manors, recorded as being held by Brictuin as a tenant of the King during the time of Edward the Confessor. By 1086 it was held by William FitzStur, and subsequently passed through the hands of the de Insulas and de Clamorgans families before coming into the possession of the Cheke family of Mottistone in the middle of the 16th century. Edward Cheke, the builder of the present house, was married to the sister of Sir John Oglander of Nunwell, the diarist. The manor is unusual for the Isle of Wight, being constructed from brick rather than the more common stone.