Upwey Manor

Upwey Manor is a manor house dated 1639, modified later in the 17th century, and extensively altered and extended in 1901. The building is constructed of rubble and coursed rubble with slate or tile roofs.

The original house appears to have had a central hall of one-room depth with a gabled east end and possibly a projecting bay at the west end. The main east wing was added in 1901, as was a large extension to the west end, stepped forward from the main range.

The north side contains the entrance, set within a small central recessed gable between full-size flanking gables. To the right of this is an added unit containing the entrance door, likely dating to 1901. The building is two storeys with an attic storey.

Windows throughout are rectangular-leaded casements with recessed hollow mould mullions and moulded labels. Some early external casement stays survive. The east gable displays a 2-light above 3-light window with a blocked ground-floor light. The central recess contains 2-light above 3-light above 4-light windows, the last with a transom, and a 1901 insertion. A flush datestone inscribed 1639 sits above the windows. The west gable has 2-light above 3-light above 3-light windows.

To the right is a full-height 20th-century extension in coursed stone with a slate roof, containing a 20th-century plank door beneath a 4-centred arch with recessed spandrels and flanking light, all sheltered by a pent-roofed portico with stone slate roof and various lights. The gables are coped on kneelers, each with a small brick terminal stack. A further brick stack rises from a coped flush gable to the right. The west gable contains a large wood 4-light casement with transom to the first floor and a blocked doorway with flush keystone to the lower left. A 1945 photograph shows this elevation formerly had a large canted oriel with central arched sash at the upper floor.

The east front features paired linked gables covering a central gutter, with gabled roofs either side. Various mullioned lights are present, including an early 3-light to the first floor right, and a one-storey added hipped verandah-like unit at ground floor level. Two brick stacks rise from stone skirts.

The garden front (south) comprises on the left the large 1901 extension (now separately occupied as West Manor), followed by a low two-storey canted bay with hipped roof and 1:2:1 light casements at two levels. On the return wall to the right of this extension is a small square light set flush above a 2-light casement. The main south wall displays 4-light and 2-light mullioned casements above a 4-light casement and plank door, possibly in the original position of a through passage. The projecting main gable to the right contains 3-light over 4-light over deep 4-light casements. All roofs on this front are tiled.

The interior has been extensively altered. From the 17th-century structure, deep chamfered transverse and cross beams survive in the main hall or parlour, along with an inserted octagonal timber post. Various roof timbers remain in the collar roofs on two purlins. The main hall contains a deep bressumer fire with chamfered stone cheeks, the bressumer having been renewed, and a stone slab floor. A 20th-century panelled entrance lobby contains a straight-run staircase to the west of the hall.

The ground-floor room to the east retains a high oak overmantel with eight carved Arts and Crafts panels dated 1901. The lofty first-floor billiard room to the west features a fine imported rococo plaster coved ceiling with central circular panel enrichment and a marble fireplace with eared architrave. The attics contain some deep chamfered beams, several of these very crudely carved.

The Manor was owned by the Gould family from the 17th century onwards, as evidenced by a churchyard monument on Church Street.