The Manor House

The Manor House at Sandford Orcas is a Grade I listed building dating from approximately 1550, built for Edward Knoyle. It stands as a substantial country house of considerable architectural and historical importance.

The main structure is constructed in Ham stone ashlar for the principal elevations, with service ranges built in coursed squared rubble. The roofs are covered in stone slates, featuring gable-ends at the range terminations and two gables to the front (east) elevation, with a south gable being a 19th-century addition. The stone gable-copings are decorated with carved monkeys holding shields at their apices. Stone stacks feature carved interlace cornices; those in the gatehouse date from the 16th century, while the stack on the hall ridge, on the north gable end, and on the gable of the south chamber date from the 19th century, as do those at the gable-ends of the west service range.

The east front presents 2½ storeys with four windows. A two-storey canted bay with 6-light stone mullions occupies the ground floor, with transomed lights and moulded stone cills. A 2-light mullion lights the porch, a 3-light window the Parlour, and a 4-light window sits above. Iron casements with lozenge-leaded lights are used throughout. A moulded plinth carries continuously over the Parlour window as a label, with a string course to the first floor designed similarly. The gables feature 3-light mullions with separate labels above. The porch, positioned right of centre, rises two storeys and is gabled, with octagonal angle-shafts having concave faces finished with finials. The outer archway has moulded jambs and a 4-centred head, a 19th-century insertion with a two-leaf door. Above sits a lozenge-shaped panel bearing the arms of Knoyle impaling Fry of Iwerne.

The south range contains a hall canted bay of 8 lights with supermullion and transomed ground-floor lights. A small south block, dated 1685 and identified as the Buttery Chamber, rises two storeys (the lower being lower in height) with a single light and a 4-light window above. Nineteenth-century walling joins this block to the west range. Within the courtyard sits a staircase tower containing a stone spiral stair in the angle between the hall and south block.

An attached gatehouse on the north side of the house features an octagonal stone stack on its north gable. It rises two storeys with an attached garderobe tower to the north. A high gateway has moulded jambs and a 4-centred head, flanked by buttresses with plinth moulding, set-offs, and carved foliated capitals. A pedestrian entrance occupies the south side. A string-course and lozenge-shaped panel are present, along with a 3-light mullion window above the gateway. Two-leaf plank doors serve the gateway.

The west service range is 1½ storeys with five windows of 3- and 4-lights. The windows feature hollow-chamfered stone mullions with separate labels above and iron casements with lozenge-leaded lights. Three gabled half-dormers project from this range. A centrally positioned doorway has moulded jambs and a depressed-arch head, with a plank door added in the 19th century. This range returns eastward with 16th-century larder walling beside the gatehouse.

Internally, an internal stone spiral stair is positioned off the west end of the screens passage. The front door is panelled with nail-stud decoration. Fireplaces of 16th-century form appear in the hall, Buttery Chamber (Solar), and upper chambers. An early 17th-century screen occupies the hall, composed of five bays divided by fluted Corinthian pilasters supporting a panelled entablature with pierced pinnacles and strapwork-cresting above. The bays are panelled throughout. Heraldic glass in the south window of the hall displays a fleur-de-lis within a wreath, Henry VIII impaling Anne Boleyn, Knoyle impaling Payne, Knoyle quartering Payne, and Knoyle impaling quartered arms of Martyn of Athelhampton. Over-mantels of 17th-century materials are present in the hall, Parlour, and chamber over Parlour.

The west service range was largely rebuilt in 1873, and the house underwent extensive restoration between 1978 and 1980.