Old Manor House

Old Manor House

This is a timber-framed house of 14th-century origin, substantially altered in the 16th century and later. The building stands on Manor Road in Walton-on-Thames and features rendered infill panels with plain tile roofs and brick chimney stacks.

The house follows a hall and cross-wings plan. The left wing is a 14th-century solar wing of two storeys and two bays deep. The central range contains a 14th-century open hall of three and a half bays internally, with a through passage at each end. A floor was inserted in the 16th century and subsequently removed. A further bay to the right was originally open but later partitioned, with a floor inserted. The right wing dates to the 16th century and is two storeys and two bays deep.

On the garden elevation, the hall range has its ground floor underbuilt and rendered with two buttresses. The first floor displays close studding, some of which has been replaced, with braces. An old board door with a three-light side-window of lapped glass panes stands at the left end. The main doorway on the right features a Tudor arch with leaf-moulded spandrels and a moulded surround, flanked by two windows on each side, with three further windows on the first floor. The wings are timber-framed with arch-braced crown-post trusses. The right wing is jettied with squarer panels than the left wing, which has taller panels and a steeper roof pitch. The left wing retains on its right return an old three-light window to the first floor with hollow-moulded surround and hollow-moulded mullions. Both wings have external lateral brick stacks with paired diagonally-set flues.

The rear elevation shows the hall with opposing doorways, the left being a 19th-century addition, and an external brick stack with paired diagonally-set flues. The right wing is close-studded with a first-floor jetty, scissor braces, and one window on each floor. The left wing displays large panels, arched braces, and a hipped roof with a gablet. An added stair outshut of brick stands on its right, with two small windows in the gable featuring wood stanchions, the upper window having diamond-leaded glazing. The left return has two old first-floor windows with narrow lights and hollow-moulded mullions (four lights at front, two at rear). The right return features hollow-moulded mullion windows to each floor on its left side (four lights below, two above), an inserted door to the right of the stack with a three-light diamond-set mullion window to its right on each floor, two small lights to the right with an eaves stack rising from above, and a one-light window to the right on each floor.

The interior preserves good-quality exposed timber framing throughout. The hall contains mid-20th-century 16th-century-style panelled dado and a 16th-century moulded brick fireplace at its left end, formerly with a matching fireplace above serving an inserted first floor (now removed). The through passage is defined by an open partition with moulded posts and a moulded doorway at the front end. The cross-beam is heavily moulded and brattished, supporting a later balustrade with two 16th-century-style pyramidal finials at its centre. A moulded Tudor-arched doorway leads into the right-hand bay. Wall posts are arch-braced to tie-beams, with a steeply cambered central tie-beam. The roof contains full-height wattle and daub partitioning between the hall and right-hand bay. Timbers in both sections are sooted and comprise crown-post trusses with square posts, arched braces in four directions, collar purlin, and collared rafters.

The left-hand wing has on its ground floor a moulded four-centred-arched doorway with half-pyramidal stops leading to the front room, which features moulded beams and joists, the latter broad, close-set, and with stepped cyma stops. The front central wall post displays capital-style moulding. The rear room also has moulded joists, though the doorway from the hall is later with a mid-20th-century Tudor-arched head. An old door connects the two rooms. On the first floor, access from the stair landing is up steps with a central handrail featuring moulded splat balusters and an ogee finial to the newel. First-floor rooms have moulded beams, a cambered central tie-beam, arch-braced crown-post trusses, collar purlin, and collared rafters. The right wing contains in its roof a central full-height wattle and daub partition between bays, with a crown-post roof comprising short square posts, arch braces in four directions, collar purlin, and collared rafters. The timber here is unsooted.

Photographs in the National Monuments Record show timber inscribed "GB 1690 JB" in the north-east wall. The house is reputed to have been the home of Justice Bradshaw, President of the Council in the time of Charles I and one of the signatories of the King's death warrant.

All windows are 20th-century leaded casements except where otherwise noted.