Manor House

SPELSBURY DEAN SP32SW 7/160 Manor House

II

Manor house. Early C18 with later alterations. Coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings; Stonesfield-slate roofs with ashlar stacks. Double-pile plan with subsidiary range. 2 storeys plus attic and 2 storeys. Symmetrical 5-window entrance front of taller main range, with chamfered plinth, rusticated quoins and ashlar flat arches, has 12-pane sashes which are taller at ground floor; the arched central doorway with rusticated quoins and voussoirs is a C20 alteration. The plinth, which contains 2 hollow-chamfered stone-mullioned cellar windows, continues to right around the range as does the moulded wooden cornice of the steep hipped roof. Wider 5-window return front was probably the original entrance front, but now has similar sashes throughout, except for a large late-C18 canted bay window which occupies the 2 left bays at ground floor; the roof has 3 hipped roof dormers. Set back to right is a plain 2-window subsidiary range with sashes and French windows, and there is a longer parallel range to rear. Left return of entrance front is irregular but has further roof dormers. Interior: original features include a broad dogleg stair with closed string, square handrail and turned balusters, a similar narrower stair leading to the attic, and 2 panelled first-floor rooms with plain fireplaces. Said to have been built c.1702 for Thomas Rowney, MP for Oxford 1695-1722; an inscribed cornerstone on the subsidiary range appears to include the date 1702.

Listing NGR: SP3422822596