South Ash Manor

South Ash Manor is a manor house dating from the 16th century, featuring a porch added around 1600 and later alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries. The north front has a red brick plinth with timber framing above, characterized by vertical close-studding and plaster infilling. There are jettied projections at each end of the front, and the roof is plain tiled with a hipped design, large gablets, and slight catslide extensions on both sides, along with two gabled dormers. The roof has one stack on the left slope and another ridge stack on the right, which features arched panelling. The house has two storeys and attics, with four windows that include wide glazing bar sashes, a tripartite sash on the ground floor to the right of the porch, and French casements to the left. Small casements are located under the left and right of the ground and first-floor left-hand windows.

The central two-storey gabled porch has decorative exposed framing, jettied under the first floor on joists and dragon-beams, and under the gable on a moulded bressumer. The entrance features a studded door in a moulded surround, flanked by a pair of wooden caryatid figures, likely from the 16th century, which were added later. There are one-storey additions to both the right and left of the front.

The south front is constructed of red brick with a plain tiled roof, featuring a central off-ridge stack and a gabled dormer to the left. The front has projecting wings to the left and right, with two storeys and an attic; the first floor has a 1-3-1 window arrangement, while the ground floor has a 2-2-1 arrangement, with the central pair of openings serving as doorways. A recess on the ground floor is concealed by a 20th-century timber-framed conservatory.

Inside, the dining room, originally the 'Hall Parlour', features later 16th-century painted decoration and a fireplace with a chamfered bressumer. The hall has late 17th-century fielded panelling, originally from the dining room, and an early 20th-century plastered ceiling with Arts and Crafts vine decoration. The drawing room includes an early 20th-century Adamesque fireplace. The manor was built by the Hodsoll family, after whom the parish of Hodsall Street is named, and they retained ownership until the 19th century. The building straddles the boundary of Stansted Civil Parish and Ash-cum-Ridley Civil Parish, resulting in its listing under both parishes.