Manor House

Manor House

A rectorial manor house, now residential, built over several centuries and retaining significant medieval fabric. The property demonstrates the evolution of domestic architecture from the 13th to 20th centuries, with a 3-unit cross-passage plan typical of manor houses of the period.

The 13th-century service wing survives from the earliest phase. In the 14th century, the hall was rebuilt in stone, probably replacing an earlier timber structure, and a solar wing was added to the north-east with a vaulted lower storey. The 16th century saw the insertion of a ceiling in the hall, a partition in the hall, the addition of a fireplace against the screens passage, a staircase in the north wall of the hall, a fireplace in the chamber above the hall, and a kitchen wing added to the north of the solar wing. Later alterations include the rebuilding of the south-west wall of the service wing, the conversion of the buttery and pantry to panelled parlours, and a 20th-century extension to the east.

The building is constructed of coursed regular ironstone rubble with Welsh and stone slate roofs. Stone ridge and end stacks serve the hall range, service wing, and kitchen extension, with stone copings throughout. The structure comprises a 2-storey service wing and single-storey main block with attic, arranged across a 4-bay garden front.

The entrance to the screens passage on the garden front features a 2-centred arched doorway with hood mould and head stops, with a plank door. To the left is a 13th-century lancet. To the right, a bay window with slated hipped roof is set between 2 buttresses against the hall wall, beneath which are 2 triplets of lancets, probably 20th-century, lighting the undercroft. The entrance to the 20th-century range lies further right. The main block displays mainly 2- and 3-light stone mullions with hood moulds and label stops to the attic. The service wing to the left has 2 sash windows with square labels on the ground floor flanking a blocked doorway with hood mould and stops; the first floor has sash windows.

At the rear, a back doorway to the screens passage retains fragmentary remains of an arched hood mould with stops. Most remaining windows to the rear are 2- and 3-light casements, some with wooden lintels. A 20th-century lancet is present on the west wall of the kitchen range.

Internally, the screens passage retains 2 original 13th-century pointed arched doorways leading to the buttery and pantry. The service wing, now 2 parlours, features Corinthian columns and a fireplace, possibly Edwardian. The hall, to the right of the screens passage, contains a large 16th-century fireplace with traces of wall painting above. To the right of the hall, the undercroft of the solar has 4 bays of quadripartite vaulting. The rear wall of the undercroft contains a narrow vaulted stone passage, from which the kitchen wing is accessed. In the attic, a 16th-century stone fireplace exists in the chamber above the hall. A blocked pointed arched window to the exterior wall of the solar was uncovered at the time of resurvey, featuring hollow chamfered jambs and a moulded hood with stops. Medieval wall painting in the north wall of the attic in the roof space above the solar wing was discovered during resurvey.

The manor is documented as having received 14th and 15th-century work carried out under the patronage of William of Wykeham, founder of New College, Oxford. Richard de Winchcombe, master mason, worked on the manor in 1405–6. John Jylkes, carpenter employed by New College, worked on the hall and stables in 1397–8 and on chambers and chapel in 1423–33. Swalcliffe manor house is noted as being of particular interest as a smaller example of the manorial class, retaining much of its original 13th-century plan and details.