Little Durnford Manor

Little Durnford Manor is a manor house built in the late 17th century and remodeled around 1720 to 1740 for Edward Younge, a friend of Lord Pembroke, with further alterations in the late 18th century. The building features limestone and flint chequerwork with ashlar surrounds to the windows, a buff brickwork plinth, and a plat band, as well as surrounds to the side windows. It has a slate roof and stands two tall storeys high with five bays. The layout includes a through hall double pile plan with a service extension at the east rear corner.

The central entrance has a pair of glazed doors with a fanlight, set within a small Tuscan portico. The windows on the ground floor are twelve-paned sashes with raised architraves and keystones, flanked by narrow lights beside the door. The upper floor features similar twelve-paned sashes, but with a cambered head and keystone, along with early 19th-century iron balconies. The building has a moulded cornice and a panelled parapet, with ball finials at the ends.

The west elevation has six bays, a higher plat band, and ground floor windows with brick architraves. It also features a pulvinated frieze and alternating heavy triangular and segmental pediments in brick, reflecting a Palladian style. The upper floor windows have a frieze and flat stone cornice. At the rear, there is a projecting semi-circular stair.

Inside, the first bay of the hallway boasts a groined plaster ceiling, with six-panelled doors leading to the drawing room on the left, which has a dado, cornice, and chimneypiece. To the right is the library, featuring a simple cornice and a garlanded fire surround with marble slips. The dining room at the rear of the west front has an elaborate chimneypiece with a mirror and triangular pediment. The doors also have pulvinated friezes and pediments. The dining room showcases a dentilled plaster cornice with an elaborate frieze and baroque plasterwork on the walls, dating from around 1745 to 1749, although the excellent coffered ceiling is no longer present. The hall concludes with a good staircase featuring an open well and turned balusters. The service wing was heightened in the early 20th century to two storeys and is constructed of brick with cross windows.