Uphill Manor

Uphill Manor is a large house, probably dating from around 1805, that was extended and transformed through the nineteenth century into a masterpiece of Gothic Revival architecture and interior design.

The house was extended in 1835 by Henry Rumley of Bristol for Thomas Knyfton, who purchased it in 1832 from the bankrupt Daniel Beaumont Payne. Further substantial extension and internal refurbishment followed in 1855, undertaken as a wedding gift from Thomas Tutton Knyfton to his second wife. The interior designs were probably executed by J G Crace, the leading Gothic Revival decorator, working after designs by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin.

The building is constructed of dressed and rubble limestone brought to course, with ashlar quoins and dressings. The slate roofs feature crenellated parapets and octagonal ashlar stacks.

The plan is T-shaped with a rear service wing. The front south range contains a right-of-centre porch leading to a stairhall, flanked by a library to the right, a dining room to the far left, and a smoking room to the centre. The 1855 extensions comprise a rear octagonal-plan hall with doorways opening into a drawing room projecting to the rear right (east), an entrance hall and porch to the rear, and a conservatory placed at an angle between the library and drawing room, also dating from around 1855.

The exterior displays the Picturesque Tudor Gothic style throughout. From the south, the composition is mostly two storeys, with towers incorporating the dining room to the left and bedroom and service spaces to the far left. To the right, the library bay has been made into a tower, and a tall three-storey octagonal tower rises over the octagonal hall. A Tudor-arched doorway opens to the crenellated porch. Stone-mullioned windows, mostly with label moulds, feature a 1:1:3:1 fenestration pattern. Buttresses support the library and dining room towers, while fine carved gargoyles adorn the octagonal tower and its associated stack. The conservatory and square bay lighting the drawing room have Tudor-arched windows. The rear porch features Decorated-style three-light windows and carved gargoyles to its parapet, with a more elaborate design; cusped lancets light the rear entrance, which is tall. The rear elevation has mullioned windows of simpler design.

The interior is exceptionally fine and well-preserved, decorated throughout in the Gothic Revival style by J G Crace around 1855. The scheme includes painted decoration, stencilling, wallpapers, gasoliers, and elaborate radiator covers. The rear entrance hall features a Gothic-style oak outer door and a simpler inner door. The floor is laid with patterned tiles and the panelled ceiling is supported by carved corbels, with stencilled decoration to ceiling and walls. The frieze displays homely mottoes. A lobby with an octagonal lantern light leads to the octagonal-plan hall, which displays fine stencilled decoration, Gothic arches to each facet, a panelled ceiling, and a stone fireplace with overmantel following the arch shape. The inner south hall contains an open-well staircase with barley-sugar balusters, a very fine Gothic lantern, and a vaulted wooden ceiling with moulded ribs to a quadripartite vault supported on foliate-carved stone corbels. The library has concave curved end walls fitted with book shelves. The dining room features panelled walls and ceiling with enriched cornicing. The drawing room, the most elaborate space, displays a richly decorated and stencilled panelled vaulted ceiling and fine wallpapers, with matching overmantle mirrors over a white marble fireplace and a marble-topped radiator cover. The service wing includes cool rooms, larders, and a cast-iron kitchen range.

This represents the most complete Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin-inspired Crace scheme in existence, with the exceptions only of Abney Hall near Manchester and Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire. The drawing room wallpaper is to a Pugin design used by Crace elsewhere, and other decoration is adapted from Pugin's designs. The stencil patterns derive from Pugin's "Floriated Ornament", published in 1849 and frequently employed by Crace as a design source in the 1850s.