Ballington Manor

Ballington Manor is a detached house located on Warminster Road, Steeple Langford. The original core of the building dates to the late 17th century, with substantial additions and alterations made around 1930. It is constructed of dressed limestone, with tiled roofs featuring coped verges and limestone stacks with moulded cappings.

The original house was an L-shaped plan with a two-span roof. A further L-shaped section was added in the 1930s to the east. The north front is two-storey and attic, with nine windows. These windows are mostly 2-light or 4-light chamfered mullioned casements, dating to the 1930s. A restored Tudor-arched doorway with a 17th-century style door is positioned in the cross wing, which also has double-gabled coped verges. The right return features 1930s mullioned casements on the ground floor, alongside two original 17th-century two-light recessed chamfered mullioned casements on the first floor. A datestone bearing the raised lettering “SM 1580” is visible, likely representing the initials of Susan Mompesson.

The rear elevation has a four-bay central range with 1930s mullioned casements and three hipped dormers incorporating 2-light casements. The 17th-century wing to the left retains a 17th-century three-light recessed chamfered mullioned casement to the first floor and a 2-light window to the attic. The right return of this wing has a chamfered stone doorway and a 2-light mullioned casement, with the remaining windows dating from the 1930s. A further wing to the right is a 1930s addition constructed in a similar style.

Attached to the right is a former dairy built of English bond brick, with leaded casements and a tiled hipped roof featuring hipped dormers, and it was restored in the 1930s.

The interior of the west ranges retains a significant number of late 17th-century features. These include an entrance hall with a Tudor-arched moulded stone fireplace and a dog-leg staircase with barleysugar balusters, closed strings, and a wide moulded handrail. A study to the rear features an open fireplace with a chamfered timber lintel on chamfered jambs, and moulded cross beams. The drawing room has a Tudor-arched moulded stone fireplace with a reset rococo wooden surround, featuring enriched volutes to an egg and dart cornice over a scrolled frieze, alongside 8-panelled wainscot doors with strap or H-L hinges. First floor rooms have wainscot doors, plain open fireplaces with timber lintels on stone jambs, and some herringbone brick backs. The attic stairs continue the barleysugar baluster design found on the first floor staircase.

The manor is historically associated with the Mompesson family, also associated with Bathampton House.