Manor House

Manor house built around 1586 for William Frere, enlarged and altered in the late 17th century, and restored in 1881–82 by T.G. Jackson and around 1905 by G.F. Bodley, who was a tenant at the property.

The house is constructed of coursed squared limestone with ashlar dressings, with Stonesfield slate roofs and ashlar chimney stacks. It is arranged in an L plan with an added rear wing, rising to 2 storeys plus attic.

The front elevation comprises a 3-window façade. A central 2-storey porch features a 4-centred archway flanked by Doric columns on pedestals, below a plain entablature. Above this rise Ionic pilasters flanking a 3-light stone-mullioned window. The left bay contains a large 2-storey 8-light canted mullioned-and-transomed bay window. Both the bay window and porch are crowned by very shallow gables with obelisk finials, above which stand stone dormer gables with similar finials, moulded kneelers, and 4-light mullioned windows. The right bay has a 6-light mullioned-and-transomed window on the first floor over a mullioned cellar window. The first-floor window here has been reduced to 2 lights, and the dormer gable has a 2-light window. Hood moulds at ground and first floors form continuous string courses. All windows have leaded glazing. Small subsidiary windows sit to the right of the porch.

Both end walls have gable parapets with finials. The left end was originally intended as an internal wall; the front of a demolished bay is indicated by part of the court wall. The right gable wall features a Tudor-arched cellar door, a 4-light mullioned-and-transomed first-floor window, and a dormer gable with a 4-light window.

The right gable wall returns to the contemporary rear wing, which has at ground floor two 3-light transomed windows with plain chamfered mullions (all other windows have ovolo mullions), a 5-light first-floor window, and a further 4-light dormer in a similar stone gable. The rear gable wall of the main range has a massive chimney projection with 4 diagonal shafts. The left side of the wing has first-floor windows and dormer gables of similar type. The rear of the main range retains a 3-light transomed first-floor window and has a large chimney projection with 3 diagonal shafts.

A hipped-roofed stair wing returns from the left end of the main range and has a 2-light mullioned window with label. A 17th-century service wing to the rear of the chimney projection is of one storey plus attic, with wooden cross windows and a gable parapet with plain projecting kneelers. It continues as a single-storey range with old leaded casements and external stone steps leading to a loft. A small 18th-century single-storey extension to the rear of the main wing has a canted bay window with sashes.

The interior contains a hall lined with 17th-century oak panelling without a screens passage. A fine wooden doorway with ovolo and concave mouldings and carved vase stops leads right, while a Tudor-arched stone doorway leads to the stair wing, which contains a long dogleg stair with renewed balustrade. The study has late 17th-century panelling painted green with gilding, incorporating an arched display alcove, and a wooden doorway with double-ovolo moulding and carved vase stops. The rear wing has heavy timber-framed partitions with chamfered doorways and incorporates a reset 4-centred arched stone doorway with recessed spandrels inscribed "1586" and "W.F.". A dogleg stair rising to the attics has 17th-century heavy turned balusters and knob finials to the newels. Ornamental plasterwork in the hall and dining room, featuring Tudor roses, fleur-de-lys, and arabesques, is probably 19th-century work. The first floor retains much 17th-century panelling, mostly altered or reused, with Tudor-arched stone doorways to the porch chamber and from the stair wing. The roof structure is 19th-century.

The house was owned by the second Baron Lovelace during the Civil War. G.F. Bodley died there in 1907. The estate has been owned by the Sawyer family since 1767. The building forms a fine group with the adjacent chapel and subsidiary buildings.