Manor Farmhouse

Manor Farmhouse, Cogges

Manor house, later farmhouse and now part of Cogges Manor Farm Museum. Built in the mid 13th century for the de Grey family, remodelled in the mid to late 16th century for the Pope family, and refronted and remodelled around 1680 for the Blake family. The building is constructed of coursed and uncoarsed limestone rubble with a late 17th-century stucco front featuring ashlar quoins and dressings. The roof is covered in stone slate with stone stacks.

The 13th-century hall house, now to the rear, was remodelled as an L-plan with a rear left wing. The front elevation is 2 storeys with a tall symmetrical 5-window range. The windows feature hood moulds, with a 3-light window to the left and a 2-light window with ovolo moulding, both with stone mullions. A central lateral stack and gable-end stacks have moulded ashlar flues. The rear elevation includes a late 17th-century stair-turret and one- and 2-light windows with chamfered stone mullions, alongside a mid-19th-century Gothic porch. Similar mullioned windows appear on the gable ends.

Two ranges extend to the rear using comparable materials. The former 13th-century hall features a large 16th-century external lateral stack with ashlar flues, a late 16th-century ovolo-moulded timber lintel over an ovolo-moulded light, and a late 17th-century cross window. A hood mould sits above a late 16th-century light with rebated architrave. The left side wall contains a late 16th-century four-light window and a part-blocked 3-light oval-moulded window with a stair-light, a mid 13th-century two-light window with plate tracery and blocked trefoil to the tympanum, and a similar window with cusped heads and moulded quatrefoil to the tympanum.

The former 13th-century service range to the rear has a 16th-century gable-end stack with moulded ashlar flues. The right side wall displays a 16th-century chamfered light above a lean-to, a 2-light wood-mullioned window, and an ancient plank door set in a 13th-century pointed archway. The left side wall contains a mid-19th-century plank door and trellised porch to a through-passage, a single late 17th-century leaded-light, a 4-light chamfered wood-mullioned window with leaded-lights, and a restored similar 3-light window.

Interior of the front range features late 17th-century balection-panelled doors and attic-floor ribbed doors. The room to the right is panelled with bolection moulding. The room to the left has a similar dado, spit-racks over the fireplace with a pulvinated frieze and a segmental-pedimented doorway to the rear. Quarter-turn stairs with turned balusters are set on a closed string. The first-floor rooms display late 17th-century moulded cornices. From right to left, these include: a bolection-panelled overmantle over a 16th-century stone fireplace with sunk spandrels; a room with classical egg-and-dart and other painted decoration to the cornice and traces of painted imitation-panelling on walls; a bolection-moulded overmantle over a fireplace; and a 16th-century ovolo-moulded doorframe to the rear wing. The roof above features a 3-bay collar-truss with butt purlins.

Interior of the rear wing displays stop-chamfered beams and late 17th-century bolection-panelled doors. An open fireplace with a chamfered bressumer is flanked by a copper and bread oven. A through-passage is flanked by 16th-century plank-and-stud partitions. A similar partition exists, and an ill pay-desk to the left of a 13th-century door has a pay-window opening to the passage. The centre of the first floor contains a 17th-century closet with shelving adjoining the stack. Winder stairs connect the levels. The roof dates to the mid to late 16th century and features collar trusses with butt purlins and arch bracing.

The 13th-century house originally comprised a hall separated by a through-passage from a service range, with a solar wing subsequently absorbed into the late 17th-century structure. This is an important house retaining many original features. It is scheduled as an Ancient Monument.