Yaldham Manor

Yaldham Manor is a manor house dating back to the 14th century, with alterations in the 17th and 19th centuries. The south front has a random rubble stone plinth and is constructed of red and blue brick, interspersed with galletted random rubble stone. Some stone dressings are visible, and window surrounds are finished with cement. The roof is tiled with brick stacks set off-centre to the right. A half-hipped return gable is to the right, while the left features an end projecting chimney breast topped with paired decorated stacks and decorative tile hanging. The house is two storeys high in the gable ends, with a tall, single-storey hall in the centre. Large six-light transomed mullion windows with lattice casements illuminate the hall. An arched window is on the right, and a recessed, arched doorway with a drip-mould is on the left. There are three windows under the left-hand gable on the first floor, two windows on the ground-floor, both also under drip-moulds. Three tall, closely-spaced windows are under the right-hand gable on the first floor, with French casements on the ground-floor. An L-shaped wing extends from the left of the main block, featuring a half-hipped return gable with moulded barge-boards. It is built of red brick on a random rubble stone plinth and has corbelled brick eaves and a plain tiled roof. A double stack is behind the ridge, three stacks are to the centre left, and a dormer with a sloping flat roof is to the right. The wing is two storeys and has attics, with irregular fenestration - an attic window in the gable, three windows on the first floor, and two windows on the ground floor, which have segment-headed surrounds. All windows are casements. A high garden wall to the south separates the main block from the wing. The north side features a random stone plinth and red, with some blue brick. The centre is from the 17th century, with projecting wings from the 19th century – the wing to the left is deeper. It has a plain tiled roof with four small, tile-hung gables above the centre. The building is two storeys and has attics; the central block has a near-regular arrangement of four windows, with smaller wing blocks to each side. Casement windows are set in segment-headed surrounds with raised heads, and a cement band runs over the ground floor in the centre, with a bull's eye window above. An arched entrance has a brick drip-mould and boarded doors, leading to a gabled, tile-hung porch on wooden supports with lattice glazed sides. The interior preserves the open hall with moulded arch-braced principals on mask supporting brackets. Visible remains of stencil decoration on the roof timbers, as well as smoke blackening from a previous fireplace, are present. The inscription “Bollen” is visible on a pane in the south window, reputedly belonging to Anne Boleyn. The house was originally built by the De Aldham family, and passed through the female line to the Peckham family, who held the manors of East and West Aldham between 1192 and 1713. It was subsequently relegated to farmhouse status and restored and extended in the late 19th century.