Hazelbury Manor

Hazelbury Manor is a manor house of 15th to 17th-century date, restored and enlarged between 1920 and 1925. It is built of rubble stone and ashlar, partly roughcast, with coped gables and ashlar chimney stacks. The building is two and a half storeys, arranged on a courtyard plan.

The manor originated as the great hall of the Croke family, who owned it from the 13th to 15th centuries. The present hall was probably built around 1500 for J. Bonham. The eastern wing dates probably to the early 16th century, as does the western wing, though the latter was likely raised after 1580. The west side of the courtyard, almost entirely rebuilt in 1920-25, was originally of around 1550 and completed after 1580 for Sir J. Yonge, together with a south-west stair tower. The north side of the courtyard, wholly of 1920-25, is built on 16th-century foundations. The restoration and enlargement were carried out by Sir H. Brakspear for G.J. Kidston.

The south front features a 15th-century great hall marked by a large battlemented canted bay and a two-storey battlemented porch tower, both reconstructed in 1920-25 from evidence of foundations and carved fragments. To the right is an ashlar gable of the early 16th century, with two large 15-pane thick glazing bar sashes to each floor, a buttress between the lower sashes, and a hoodmould over the upper pair. The thick glazing bars throughout the building date to 1920-25, replacing later 18th or 19th-century sashes. The range running back has some Tudor-arched lights of around 1500 to the courtyard. Before 1919, this range ended at a very large ridge stack. The east end wall has a stack with paired diagonal shafts. The east side has a wall-face stack with three upper windows of cyma-moulded type, two lower windows of around 1920 with Tudor-arched lights, an original two-light window, and a plank door with a pair of Tudor-arched window heads over the lintel. The west end of the south front has a tall paired-gabled range with a large central external stack, two late 16th-century recessed chamfered three-light attic windows, two 18-pane thick glazing bar sashes, and two ground floor leaded lights in moulded frames. A coped east gable and east end stack complete this section.

The west garden front has a five-gable range, two of which are original, with a paired corniced stack on the rear roof slope. Three gables were added in 1920-25, with a large ridge stack. The original gables have three-light attic windows matching those on the south front, each over a pair of large 18-pane sashes restored in 1920, with a left-side sash added. Ground floor windows comprise two single lights to the right and two two-light windows to the left. A circa 1920 stepped buttress stands at the end of the old work. The circa 1920 range has recessed chamfered mullion windows throughout and is roughcast to match the original section. The north front, comprising four gables and one and a half storeys, is wholly of 1920-25, also with recessed chamfered mullion windows. A late 20th-century swimming pool addition occupies the north-east corner.

The inner courtyard has a south side with a reconstructed half stack, an original Tudor-arched four-light hall bay of around 1500, and a flat-parapet stair tower of around 1580 with double-transom two-light windows. To the left of the stack is a restored late 16th-century upper three-light mullion and transom window with a Tudor-arched light of around 1500 to its right. The ground floor passage is of circa 1920-25. On the west side, only the left end bay of a six-bay open segmental-pointed arcade survives from the original work, along with one three-light mullion and transom window, while the remainder incorporates carved fragments found during restoration and follows the foundations. The east side is original as far as the ridge stack. East of the main house stands a short original range with an upper two-light window and hoodmould over an open porch with a long hood on carved 18th-century brackets. A service range of circa 1920 links this section to the formerly detached Dower House, a 17th-century building built for the Speke family.

The Dower House is a symmetrical double-fronted range with end wall stacks, a parapet, and two coped gables to each side. It has recessed chamfered mullion windows with hoodmoulds: two-light to the attic and three-light to the main floors. A central moulded Tudor-arched doorcase with hoodmould fronts the building. Relieving arches occur over ground and first floor openings. The rear is similar, but features two central stair lights over the door and ground floor casements. The parapet front and rear has three projecting stone rainwater spouts.

The interior of the main house contains an original six-bay double-purlin windbraced hall roof with arch-braced collar trusses. Original Perpendicular-style panelling lines the arches to the north and south hall bays. A timber screen and gallery have been reused from a house in Barnstaple. A 17th-century staircase has been reused from a house in Shrewsbury, as has 17th-century panelling to an upstairs room on the west side. The east side dining room has a fine early 17th-century stone fireplace, said to have been moved from the Dower House but possibly in situ, and panelling reused from a house in Shropshire. Upstairs, the south-west drawing room has circa 1920 panelling and plaster, though it retains a reused shell niche from the former north-east kitchen. Fireplaces from the Dower House and attics of the main house have been reused in the north wing.

Hazelbury Manor was visited by Queen Elizabeth I on 23 August 1575, when four Somerset gentlemen were knighted there. The manor of Hazelbury passed from the Croke family to the Bonham family around 1500, was sold in 1580 to Sir J. Yonge of Bristol, around 1602 to Hugh Speke of Ditteridge, and circa 1725 to W. Northey.