Manor Farmhouse

Manor Farmhouse

Manor house dating from the 16th to 17th century, substantially altered around 1700. The building is constructed of rubble stone, formerly roughcast, with ashlar dressings and a hipped Bridgwater tile roof. Timber-framing is visible in parts of the structure. The house rises to two storeys with an attic, featuring two ridge stacks serving the front range and a large north-west chimney gable. Dormers were formerly present in the roof but have since been removed.

The main front elevation is seven windows wide, with a coved eaves cornice. The three bays to the right have closely spaced 2-light mullion-and-transom windows with recessed chamfer moulded surrounds and hoodmoulds over the ground floor windows. The four wider-spaced bays to the left display an ashlar flush band beneath the cornice and stone mullion windows with cyma and hollow moulding. These windows are 3-light except for a 2-light example in the right bay. At ground floor is a moulded 4-centred arched doorway with carved spandrels and cornice. Above this doorway is a finely carved coat of arms dated 1702, said to belong to the Stokes and Barret families. The doorway opens into a porch with a moulded oak frame to the inner door, which appears to have been re-used or raised up.

The west end and rear elevations share the same cornice treatment and cyma/hollow moulded windows with hoodmoulds. The west end has a 4-light window above a 3-light window. The rear elevation features, to the left of a projecting chimney gable, two 3-light windows at first floor level, and at ground floor a door and 3-light window within a 20th-century lean-to verandah. A two-storey hipped stair tower projects to the left, with matching windows: 3-lights to both north and ground floors and a 2-light to the west first floor.

A north-east rear wing projects from the left of the main block, featuring an external north stack and timber-framing in its north gable. The west side of this wing has casements and the east side has a first floor hollow-moulded 2-light window above a triple casement. A lower wing projects from the east end of the front range. In the angle between this wing and the rear wing stands a fine three-sided stair tower with a small round-headed loop on its north-east face and single lights on each floor of the east face. The lower wing is constructed of rubble stone with timber-frame and red brick to the first floor of its north side, and cement render to the south side. This section features a ridge stack and coped east gable with a saddlestone. The north side has a ground floor chamfered single light and a pair of casements, while the east end preserves an apex single light (a former dove-entry) and first floor with a pair of hollow-moulded 2-lights with unusual shallow Gothic panels between them. The south side has a 20th-century verandah.

Interior: The ground floor hall and west end room contain chamfered beams with stepped run-out stops. The stair in the main stair tower is largely renewed except at the attic landing, which retains turned balusters of early to mid-17th-century type. A room to the east of the hall preserves 17th-century panelling and a bolection-moulded fireplace of circa 1700 type. The attic contains tie-beam and collar truss roofs. The rear wing roof comprises five bays with straight wind bracing, apparently earlier than the large four-bay main roof. An internal timber-framed gable indicates that the main stair tower is an addition. The roof over the lower east wing is lined completely with timber nesting boxes and contains a fine oak winding stair.

Historical and structural evidence suggests that the rear wing, the right side of the main front, and the lower east wing date from circa 1600, while the major part to the left was rebuilt with the new stair tower in the mid to later 17th century. Manor Farm belonged to the Stokes family during the 17th and 18th centuries: Edward Stokes died in 1667, Abjohn Stokes died in 1712, and Abjohn Stokes II died in 1725.