Wymering Manor

Wymering Manor

Manor house, originally a half H-plan building dating from some medieval masonry but mainly the 17th century, with significant early 19th-century extensions and early 20th-century alterations. The building is constructed of brick and timber-framing, now painted or rendered, with a plain tile roof and brick stacks. The courtyard was filled in around 1900 to form a square plan, and there are 19th-century spurs to the south-west and west. At the time of listing the building was in use as a youth hostel.

The eastern or entrance elevation is of three bays with two storeys and an attic. A wide central bay features three stone steps leading to a recessed six-panelled door with moulded eared architrave, flanked on each side by an 18-pane fixed casement with architrave and band cornice. The first floor has a tripartite sash with each light containing 18 panes, set beneath a cambered arch, with a band cornice and lead-coped parapet. The flanking bays on left and right each contain canted bay windows with a 16-pane centre sash and narrow flanking eight-pane sashes, frieze and cornice. Above these, the first-floor fenestration consists of 12-pane sashes with attached shutters in each bay, and the attic storey has six-pane casements, each gable facing being lead-coped with a ball finial.

The left return elevation faces south and shows painted brickwork with small 16th and early 17th-century casements. The right return faces north and features a two-storey rounded bay on the left side with three 12-pane sashes to each floor, a wide central stack of brick, stone and flint, and pierced brick parapets on each side; there are small dormer casements within the gables. To the far right is a mid-19th-century one-storey extension with a rounded end and attic space, which at one time served as a chapel, with a further mid-19th-century extension to the south.

Internally, entrance from the east opens into a full-height hall constructed around 1900, which contains two curved staircases and a gallery made from turned balusters and newelposts from Bold Hall (a Palladian mansion of circa 1730 by Giacomo Leoni, demolished in 1900), reconstructed in the first decade of the 20th century. The room to the west has exposed 17th-century beams and a stone fireplace believed to be an early 20th-century copy. The four reeded pilasters on each side, dado rail and six-panelled doors of early 18th-century date are likely to have been relocated from Bold Hall.

The Dining Hall opens from the Entrance Hall to the south and features a 17th-century spine beam with lamb's tongue stops and a cornice on two sides decorated with Greek key design. A very wide early 18th-century doorcase with decorative iron hinges, triglyphs and carved decorations opens into this space. There is a restored wooden fireplace, probably medieval in origin, with carved spandrels, and beside it stands a doorcase with a Gothic-style head. The Common Room opens from the Entrance Hall to the north and contains a 17th-century spine beam with moulded floor joists; the curved bay retains original early 19th-century shutters. The large ground floor room with curved bay to the north-west has an early 19th-century cornice.

On the upper floor, the landing has a dado rail and the cornice continues from the Entrance Hall. Bedroom one contains a massive jowled post exposed in a corner and early 18th-century painted panelling with dado rail, likely relocated from Bold Hall. A small Priest's hole is reported to exist beneath the floor of a cupboard within this room. Bedroom six has Jacobean panelling painted on one wall, early 18th-century panelling on the others, a two-panelled door, moulded cornice and an early 19th-century cast-iron fireplace decorated with female sphinxes and bamboo-type pilasters. A further circa 1730 staircase with balustrading from Bold Hall leads to the attic, which retains a 17th-century roof with purlins and diagonal braces. The remainder of the roof was not seen at the time of inspection.

Wymering Manor is a pre-Conquest manor that originally belonged to the Crown. The Half H-plan building was constructed by the Bruning family, who held the manor between 1562 and 1707. Between 1761 and 1873 it was used as a vicarage. The Reverend George Nugee, resident between 1859 and 1872, ran a small college here to train missionaries for overseas service and built a chapel, though its tower has since been demolished. The substantial early 20th-century alterations and interior reconstructions were carried out by Thomas Knollys Parr, a descendant of Henry VIII's sixth wife, who was in residence between 1900 and 1938. These works incorporated architectural features salvaged from Bold Hall near St Helen's in Lancashire, which was demolished in 1900 after becoming isolated amid coalfields. The alterations were substantially complete by 1908. The building has been used as a Youth Hostel since 1960.