Hook Manor

Hook Manor is a detached house built in 1637 by Thomas Arundell for his daughter Ann, with substantial remodelling in 1935 by T.L. Dale of Oxford. It is constructed of dressed limestone with a tiled roof and brick stacks featuring moulded cappings. The house is arranged around a U-plan, with wings projecting to flank a courtyard on the south side.

The front, facing the courtyard, is two-storeys with a two-window facade. It includes a Tudor-arched doorway with a 1930s door, flanked by a three-light recessed chamfered mullioned casement window on either side, and two similar windows to the first floor. The flanking wings have three-light mullioned casements to both floors overlooking the courtyard. The west wing also features a single-light window to the stairs. The gable ends of the wings incorporate three-light mullioned casements to the ground, first, and attic floors, with coped verges to the east wing, which also has a stone sundial to its gable.

The right return of the east wing has a large gabled brick stack with a three-light mullioned casement to the ground floor and a single light to the attic. The ground floor to the right has 1930s French windows, while the first floor has a three-light mullioned casement. The left return of the west wing features a large external stack with a single light to the attic, a three-light mullioned casement, and an elliptically-headed doorway to the left, and a single light window to the right. The rear elevation has three-light and two-light mullioned casements to the ground and first floors, an external stack to the centre, and three-light mullioned casements in the attic gables of the wings. All casements are leaded.

The interior entrance hall boasts a stone Tudor-arched fireplace and chamfered beams with stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops. The south-east room features an open fireplace and a fine plaster ceiling divided into square panels with vine scroll borders and motifs incorporating whales, sailing ships, and fleur de lis. One panel features the initials of Ann Arundell and Cecil Calvert, 2nd Lord Baltimore, who married in 1628. This ceiling is believed to commemorate the colonisation of Maryland in 1633 when Cecil's brother, Leonard Calvert, sailed in the Ark and the Dove; it likely dates from after 1639 when the house was given to the Calverts by Thomas Arundell. The staircase and much of the joinery are from the 1930s renovation. The first floor features stone fireplaces and plaster ceiling cornices. The north-east room has a pilastered fireplace dating from the 18th century. A false fireplace in the attic contains a reset lintel from the original entrance with the date 1655/IB in a heart-shaped panel. The centre range has a rebuilt roof, while the wings retain roofs with four-bay butt-purlin construction and collars.

Hook Manor is a notable example of a Wiltshire manor house, significant for its historical connection to the early colonisation of North America and the survival of complete building accounts which detail a construction cost of £313.14s.1d. in 1637.