Hook Manor

SEMLEY WARDOUR ST 92 NW (west side)

4/194 Hook Manor 6.1.66 II*

Detached house. 1637, built by Thomas Arundell for his daughter Ann, 1935 remodelling by T.L. Dale of Oxford. Dressed limestone, tiled roof, brick stacks with moulded cappings. U-plan with wings flanking courtyard on south side. Two-storey, 2-window front in courtyard; Tudor-arched doorway with 1930s door, 3-light recessed chamfered mullioned casement either side and two to first floor. Flanking wings have 3-light mullioned casements to both floors facing across courtyard, west wing also has single light to stairs, front gable ends of wings have 3-light mullioned casements to ground, first and attic floors, coped verges, east wing has stone sundial to gable. Right return of east wing has large gabled external stack with 3-light mullioned casement to ground floor and single light to attic, ground floor to right has 1930s French windows, 3-light mullioned casement to first floor. Left return of west wing has large external stack with single light to attic, 3-light mullioned casement and elliptically-headed doorway to left, single light to right. Rear has 3-light and 2-light mullioned casements to ground and first floors, external stack to centre, attic gables of wings have 3-light mullioned casements. Attached to rear right is single-storey 1930s service extension, in similar style with mullioned casements and hipped dormers. All casements are leaded. Interior: entrance hall has stone Tudor-arched fireplace, chamfered beams with stepped stops. South east room has open fireplace and fine plaster ceiling in square panels with vine scroll borders and motifs including whales, sailing ships, fleur de lis; south east panel contains initials of Ann Arundell and Cecil Calvert, 2nd Lord Baltimore, married 1628. This ceiling records the colonisation of Maryland in 1633 when Cecil's brother, Leonard Calvert sailed in the Ark and the Dove; it probably dates from after 1639 when the house given to the Calverts by Thomas Arundell. C17-style stairs and much of joinery dates from 1930s renovation. First floor has stone fireplaces, plaster ceiling cornices, north east room has pilastered fireplace of c1800. False fireplace in attic has reset lintel from entrance with date 1655/IB in heart- shaped panel, roof of centre range rebuilt, wings have 4-bay butt- purlin roofs with collars. A classic Wiltshire manor house, important for its historical association with the early colonisation of North America, as well as the unusual survival of complete building accounts, showing the house to have cost £313.14s.1d. in 1637. (Unpublished records of RCHM (England), Salisbury; Country Life, October 24, 1963)

Listing NGR: ST9171426643