Slyfield Manor, With Attached Garden Walls

Slyfield Manor, Great Bookham

A manor house, now a private residence, of 16th-century or earlier origin, substantially remodelled and clad in brick in the early 17th century, reduced in the 18th century, and subsequently altered. It is constructed of red hand-made brick laid in 1+1 garden wall bond with some tiles, and has a red tile roof. The building was formerly part of a larger interlinked complex which included the wing now detached and known as Slyfield Farmhouse; it now has an L-shaped plan, with the main range running east-west and facing south, and coupled wings projecting to the rear from the west end.

The south-facing façade is two storeys tall and now comprises 1+7 bays, with part of the former west range surviving as a screen wall. The plinth has a moulded coping of brick with tile fillets. Brick pilasters, mostly Ionic with pronounced entasis, are positioned across the façade; these have badges set halfway up the shafts and concave capitals finished with terracotta volutes. The eaves are prominent, boarded, and supported on carved wooden brackets.

The wide left end of the façade, probably the former centre, displays a moulded string course and deep moulded cornice. Wooden transomed 8-light windows are framed by pilasters on each floor; the upper window has a moulded segmental head that breaks through the cornice. Above this sits a shaped gable containing a rectangular panel with a diamond motif and a pediment. The remaining bays feature a mix of 16-pane sash windows (except for French windows at ground floor in the 3rd bay), a small sashed window at ground floor in the 1st bay with a blocked window above, and two bays with cornices at ground floor and sills above (as if for windows). The roof carries a panelled chimney at the 1st bay and a gable chimney to the right.

The rear elevation shows double brick bands, the upper one dentilled, which step over a doorway in the re-entrant of the wing. A further doorway in the main range has a Sun fire plaque above it and a small window with a banded wooden surround above. Various other windows are scattered across the rear, including a wooden mullioned stairlight with two transoms positioned in the angle between wing and main block.

The interior is exceptionally fine. The entrance hall in the wing features a wooden screen on the left side with Tudor-arched doorways and a splat balustrade above, together with a 4-centred wooden archway with carved pilasters and spandrels and a pendant "keystone", opening into an outstanding early 17th-century open-well staircase. This staircase has rusticated newels topped with square urn-finials, geometrical open-work panels substituting for balusters, and a matching dado.

The parlour is panelled in muntin-and-rail work with Ionic pilasters. It contains a moulded Tudor-arched fireplace of Sussex marble with a shield in the overmantel, and a moulded plaster ceiling with a figure of plenty at the centre. The great chamber above has similar but simpler panelling and fireplace, with a coved ceiling of moulded plaster decorated with strap-work, swags, cherubs, and birds. The chambers in the main range likewise have muntin-and-rail panelling and fine 17th-century moulded plaster panelled ceilings, each with a central oval. The ceiling over the drawing room contains a female figure of peace holding an olive branch like a great quill pen; the other ceilings contain cherubs. The back staircase at the east end has newels similar to those of the main staircase. The drawing room was remodelled with 18th-century panelling.

An attached garden wall extends at right-angles from the east end of the front elevation for approximately 40 metres and stands 4 metres high. It has a saw-tooth band and cornice, and features a round-headed doorway near the north end and another at the centre, both with pilastered architraves.