Belvedere Manor

Belvedere Manor is a house in Nempnett Thrubwell, formerly the parsonage of St Mary's Church. The building is probably from the 16th century with later additions and 20th-century alterations.

The house is constructed of local rubble stone, coursed on the front elevation and random on the other sides. The roof is covered with double Roman tiles and has end stacks with an off-centre ridge stack. Most of the fenestration dates to the late 20th century, though a 16th-century window with ovolo moulding survives.

The plan is accretional, consisting of a west-east range that was extended eastwards twice before 1885. At the west end is a single-storey lean-to built at right angles to the main house, later extended to the north, north-east and south in the 20th century.

The south front elevation comprises five bays. The three westernmost bays represent the original extent. A vertical joint in the masonry between bays four and five marks where the house was subsequently extended by a further bay before the late 19th century. The front features a late 20th-century entrance porch towards the west end, flanked by timber casement windows with camber-headed brick lintels. Further right are French doors beneath a brick lintel, and two-light windows with a continuous concrete lintel at the east end. At first-floor level are five 20th-century dormer windows. A single-storey conservatory has been added to the rear, running most of the length of the house and serving as a link corridor. The original external north wall is visible through the conservatory glazing and shows a three-light mullioned window with ovolo moulding, a four-centred doorway to the cross passage, and a flat-headed opening to the stairs.

Inside, the cross passage retains its head beam supported on timber corbels. The principal rooms on either side have large open fireplaces with substantial timber bressumers and ceiling beams with run-out stops. A cupboard flanking the fireplace in the left-hand room probably marks the location of the original winder stairs, now replaced with a staircase accessed from the rear link corridor. The right-hand room has a six-panel framed ceiling with chamfered beams, not extending the full length of the room, indicating it was originally smaller and has been enlarged. At first-floor level is a late 16th or early 17th-century flat-headed doorway with run-out stops to the jambs. The roof structure dates to the 19th and 20th centuries.

The house originally served as the parsonage and was previously known as Glebe Farm prior to 1885. A Glebe Terrier of 1637 describes it as comprising two lower rooms, two chambers, two outhouses and a garden.