The Manor House

The Manor House is a house dating from the 17th century, with significant alterations in the mid-18th century and early 19th century. It is constructed of chalk ashlar, with portions of the left wall in coursed chalk and sarsen rubble, and the right wall in sarsen rubble with chalk bands and connecting blocks. The front has an old tiled roof, while the rear has a stone slate roof, and there are brick stacks. The house’s plan is complex, incorporating a 17th-century L-shaped house with an 18th-century extension to the front right, creating a square double-depth plan. The front elevation has two storeys and a four-window range, featuring a flat hood over early 19th-century double doors and a trellised porch. It has chalk segmental arches with voussoirs over 2-light 20th-century casements, brick bands indicating storey and eaves height, and blind windows within each of three gables. A ridge stack is located to the left, and a lateral stack to the right. There is a three-window range to the left side with a projecting bread oven. The crow-stepped gable wall of the late 17th-century wing to the rear right has a moulded limestone cornice, while mid-19th-century rebuilding of the rear wall obscures further interpretation.

Inside, there are mid-18th-century 2-panelled doors in moulded architraves, and 19th-century plank doors. A straight-flight and quarter-turn staircase, with a closed string and moulded balusters dating from around 1760-70, is located opposite the front entry. A front right room contains a plain mid-18th-century fireplace, alongside a china closet set within a semi-circular arch supported by flanking reeded pilasters; it also has a moulded dado rail and cornice, and some plain straight-cut panelling. The hall, landing, and a first-floor room to the front right retain mid-18th-century panelling. The 17th-century section of the house to the left and rear retains a chalk fireplace with a chamfered surround, alongside chamfered and stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops and joists. Exposed square-framing of the original outer wall faces a first-floor room to the right. The left wing retains a three-bay collar-truss with butt purlins and, unusually for this area, a ridge beam notched into the apex. A late 18th-century coach house and dovecote, now a cottage, is located to the rear right, retaining its square nesting boxes sunk into the brick gable walls.