The Manor

CHALGROVE MILL LANE SU6397 (West side) 9/62 The Manor 18/07/63 (Formerly listed as Manor Farmhouse (S of the Lamb Inn))

GV I

Shown on OS map as Manor Farm. Manor house, now house. Early C15, left wing rebuilt c.1500: C16 rear extensions. Large timber framing: tension braced and jettied gable ends of side wings, with close studding to left, and crown post to right. Gabled old tile roof; C16 brick ridge stack and right end stack of stone finished in brick. Hall and flanking wings. 2 storeys; 4-window range of 1:2:1 fenestration. C20 door to right of hall set in largely restored moulded frame (original jamb to left); C20 windows. C16 two-storey rear ranges, of single bay to left and 2 bays to right: of square timber framing with brick infill. Mid C19 rear outshut. Interior: right service wing has moulded quartered beams and open fireplace in front room, and 4-bay arch-braced collar-truss roof above with concave pointed windbraces and stop-chamfered clasped purlins; chamfered door frame within and garderobe shute behind third truss from front. Early C15 hall has finely detailed 5-bay collar-truss roof with arch braces sprung from beneath wall plate. 2 pairs of similar windbraces and moulded butt purlins to each bay; central bay has seating for smoke louvre. Screens passage bordered by timber-framed wall with chamfered door frame to right and early C15 screens to left, which has moulded frame and 5 bays of grooved planks divided by miniature buttresses: early C15 moulded rear doorway with carved spandrels. Late C16 floor and inserted ridge stack: full set of chamfered and stopped beams and joists and open fireplace on ground floor; first floor has late C16 moulded stone fireplace and central timber-framed partition with painted grey studding. Left parlour wing: quartered roll-moulded beams with cusped joists, late C16 moulded beams with cusped joists, late C16 moulded stone fireplace and late C17 painted grained panels in front room similar fireplace and late C16 inserted ceiling above: collar-truss of c.1500 with curved windbraces and chamfered tie beam. Queen-post truss in C16 rear extension. C17 ribbed doors around house. The right wing probably predates the similar hall range: the design of the roof has close links with the Manor House at Ewelme. The first manor house on the site was built for John de Plessis (Earl of Warwick) in 1232-40. (Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, pp.526-7; Information supplied by Dr. John Blair of Queen's College, Oxford).

Listing NGR: SU6306197027