The Manor

The Manor

House, circa 1840 (dated roof timber) with alterations of the circa 1880s for Charles W. Powell, some refurbishments of 1907, and late 20th-century renovations.

The building is constructed of very fine sandstone ashlar masonry brought to course with thin joints and diagonal rustication with a smoother border to each block. It has a slate roof with stacks featuring ashlar stone shafts.

The house follows a deep rectangular plan, 2 rooms wide. The present entrance front faces west, with the house positioned to take advantage of views to the east across the garden. Originally, there were 4 principal rooms on the ground floor, probably entered on the south side, with a 3-storey service block to the north containing service rooms and a dining room. This arrangement was altered in the 1880s: the rear rooms were re-arranged to provide a large entrance hall containing the stair and a small south-facing room. In the late 20th century the service block was reduced to a single storey over cellars, separated from the main house by a glazed passage. A conservatory was added to the centre of the west front in the 1980s.

The exterior is 2 storeys with a deep plinth, platband at first floor level, and platband below a chamfered stone eaves cornice. All principal windows have flush keyblocks.

The west front is asymmetrical with a 1:3:1-bay arrangement, the centre 3 bays projecting. A probably late 19th-century 2-leaf panelled front door in the centre features a fanlight with spoke glazing bars, framed by smooth ashlar masonry with pilasters and a moulded cornice above a dentil frieze, with a moulded stone doorframe and reeded keystone. Above the front door are a pair of one-light windows with late 20th-century glazing, flanked by blind recesses. The left return of the central projection has one first-floor one-light window with late 20th-century glazing and 2 probably late 19th or early 20th-century round-headed windows with moulded frames and a shared hoodmould. The first-floor windows in the outer bays are early 19th-century 4-pane sashes with margin panes; the left-hand ground-floor windows have been altered. The right-hand bay has a late 19th or early 20th-century single-storey flat-roofed addition with 2 round-headed windows with a shared hoodmould.

The garden (east) elevation is a 3-bay symmetrical design with canted bays to left and right featuring plate glass 19th-century sash windows with margin panes: 4-pane to the first floor and 8-pane to the ground floor. The windows have stone sills and the first-floor windows have panels below the sills. A 19th-century 2-leaf glazed garden door in the centre has a deep overlight. A late 20th-century archway at the left (north) end links the main block to the remains of the service wing, which has matching sash windows.

The south elevation is 3-bays and asymmetrical, with the middle bay slightly projecting with a separate hipped roof and a probably late 19th-century 2-leaf glazed garden door with a deep overlight. 19th-century sash windows with margin panes are present. The dining room and service block appear always to have been divided from the main range by a service passage running from west to east.

The entrance hall, reduced in size in the late 20th century, is lined with circa 1880s Jacobean-style panelling and features a contemporary stair with turned balusters.

The principal east-facing room to the south contains a fine 18th-century white marble chimney-piece with carved figure panels and inlaid yellow marble. This chimney-piece is said to be an original Adam design and has a brass plaque recording that it originated at Mercers Hall and was given to Charles W. Powell, Master of the Mercers Company, in 1907. The room has an Adam-style wall frieze and oval ceiling decoration, presumably of 1907. The wall frieze is interrupted by a pair of timber Doric columns that nominally divide the room from a passage to the doors on the east elevation.

The northern principal room has a probably 1840 white Italian marble chimney-piece and plaster cornice.

Extensive stone cellars with stone vaulted roofs survive beneath both the main block and service wing.

Baden-Powell, a relation of Charles Powell, wrote Scouting for Boys while staying at the Manor and established a group of scouts in the parish.