Hardwick Manor House

Hardwick Manor House is a late 16th-century manor farmhouse with later extensions and additions, located on the south side of Hardwick with Tusmore Hethe Road. The west gable was restored in 1946, and the building has undergone late 20th-century alterations and repairs.

The house is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with a half-hipped tiled roof. A substantial stone ridge stack rises through the roof with three diagonally set brick shafts, and a stone brick lateral stack appears on the rear elevation. The building has a long rectangular plan, probably originally a 2-unit structure extended to a 4-unit plan. It is two storeys tall with an attic and cellar. The front elevation originally displayed a 6-window range, extended to 8 windows.

The front entrance is off-centre to the right and has a gabled porch with a plank door and moulded wood frame. To the right of the entrance are three 2-light stone mullioned windows, with two further 2-light stone mullioned windows to the left. A straight joint divides the composition; to its left are two 20th-century 2-light stone mullioned windows and five additional 2-light stone mullioned windows plus a single-light window in the main part. Hood moulds and label stops ornament all windows. To the right of the entrance is a 3-light stone mullioned cellar window.

The rear elevation features a gabled 2-storey staircase projection off-centre to the left, with 2-light stone mullioned windows topped by hood moulds and label stops. A doorway below the staircase leads to the cellar. A single-storey dairy outshot on the right has a raking roof and brick stack, with an entrance on the right side. To the left of this door are 2-light and 3-light casement windows. Between the outshot and staircase projection, a 20th-century window with wood lintel occupies the ground floor, with a 2-light window and wood lintel above. To the left of the staircase projection, a 2-light stone mullioned window on the first floor has a hood mould and label stops.

The interior plan runs west to east, comprising a Parlour, a space occupied by the original staircase with stone steps leading to the cellar, the Hall, Kitchen, and Dairy to the rear. The staircase projection now leads from the upper end of the Hall via a passageway to the Parlour. The Parlour contains a late 16th-century stone fireplace with a 4-centred arched head. The Hall features a wide stone fireplace with wood bressumer, a fragment of 17th-century oak screen, and a chamfered beam. The cellar contains a 16th-century moulded and stop-chamfered beam. The original late 16th-century staircase has a heavy moulded handrail without balusters and massive fleur-de-lys shaped newel posts. The original passageway once ran from west to east on the north side of the house; the present passageway runs on the south with partition walls dividing rooms. A small square opening to a priest's hole is visible in the side of the stack above head height on the first floor, probably formed around the same time as the ridge stack.

The attic floor contains a former Roman Catholic chapel with a stoup at the entrance, barrel-vault plaster ceiling, altar steps, and a winder stair. A priest's hole lies beyond the chapel.

Hardwick Manor House was built between approximately 1580 and 1643 when Sir Richard Fermor was Lord of the Manor. The Fermors were a prominent Roman Catholic family, and religious services were held at the manor house until the 19th century, when a new Roman Catholic chapel was built at Hethe. In the 18th century, the manor house was leased by the Fermors to the Day family until 1793 and subsequently to the Collingridge family until 1812.