Manor House

This is a manor house, largely dating from the early 18th century, with origins in a medieval house, and later alterations from the late 18th century and around 1900. It is now used as a college.

The house is constructed of limestone rubble, partly rendered, with freestone dressings and a double Roman tile roof. It has a complex plan, including a top-lit central hall. The front of the main early 18th century block originally presented a symmetrical five-window facade, featuring a freestone parapet, cornice, frieze, rusticated quoins, plinth, and raised surrounds to the six/six-pane sash windows, some with crown glass. The front is now rendered with painted window surrounds. A two-storey enclosed porch, added around 1900, covers the central bay. This porch features a cornice, blocking course, and lintel frieze above a three-light stone mullioned and transomed window (two-light to the returns), over a cornice and triglyph frieze supported by semicircular arches with moulded archivolts and keystones. Flanking the arches are engaged Tuscan columns with clasping Tuscan pilasters to the quoins. A late 19th-century half-glazed door is set within the porch. A portion of the original medieval house is visible on the left return, with a mullioned window to the first floor.

A rubble stone wing, dated around 1900, stands to the left. It has a hipped roof to the left, a freestone blocking course, cornice, frieze, and window surrounds to 19th-century windows. A similar rendered wing to the right features a five-sided, semicircular-plan two-storey bay with stone mullioned windows, the ground floor windows having transoms. The rubble stone right return has a two-storey rectangular bay, similar to the porch but shallower, with a semicircular arched fanlight above half-glazed French windows. The rear of the house is plain.

Inside, the marble-floored hall is notable for its Corinthian columns, a spectacular lantern, grotesques, pediments over moulded architraves with paterae friezes. A rear reception room boasts Corinthian columns, painted ceilings, rich cornices and friezes, broken pediments over six-panel doors, a panelled dado, and a fine early 18th-century fireplace. The building is designated Grade II* for the spectacular interior, considered one of the finest examples of Adam style architecture in the region. The interior includes stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops.