Kington Manor

Kington Manor is a manor house dating from 1863, possibly designed by J.L. Pearson for H. Prodgers. It incorporates features from a previous 16th-century manor house belonging to the Snell family. The building is constructed of rubble stone with an imitation slate roof, featuring coped gables with finials and tall ashlar stacks. It has a square plan and is in a 16th-century style, characterised by mullion and transom windows and hoodmoulds.

The south front has a near-symmetrical design with three gables and two large ground-floor bay windows. The first floor has a 3-light, a 3-light, and a 4-light window, while the attic has a 2-light, a 2-light, and a 3-light window. A single-story service wing extends to the east, with a bellcote at its east end.

The north front is asymmetrical, with the central section reusing part of the circa 1600 frontispiece of the earlier manor house, projecting slightly and featuring a shouldered gable. The right gable has an external stack and a large first-floor oriel on a moulded ashlar base; the left gable has 3-light windows to the main floors and a 2-light window to the attic. At the north-east angle is an octagonal full-height turret, its original tiled cap replaced with battlements. The central entrance features a large 19th-century arch with original carved spandrels, a keystone, Doric pilasters, a triglyph frieze with ornamental cartouches, and a cornice. Above the arch is a 19th-century 5x3-light mullion window containing an original carved apron panel bearing the Snell family dragon crest and carved cartouches, set between decorated pedestals of Ionic pilasters. An original entablature with a decorated frieze and moulded cornice is also present. Putti are positioned on pedestals above each side of the large carved panel, which depicts a bearded face being crowned by ravens, with strapwork scrolls and small ravens on either side.

The west side is irregular, with a chimney gable dated 1864 to the right, a shouldered centre gable with a reused finial, and a buttress to the left separating two ground-floor 3-light windows. An eaves-breaking dormer gable is positioned above.

Kington Manor was initially built for Nicholas Snell, who died in 1577. It subsequently passed to the Stokes family in 1651, was bought by Ayliffe White in the 18th century, and remained in his family's ownership until 1856. It was then sold to H. Prodgers in 1862. J.L. Pearson was consulted in 1862-3, but there is no definitive proof he designed the present house.