Ashley Manor

Ashley Manor is a rambling manor house of 17th-century date with earlier origins, built in squared rubble and ashlar with slate and stone tiled roofs and coped gables. The building is two storeys with attic accommodation and arranged in a complex U-plan.

The east front, probably refronted in the early 18th century, is constructed in ashlar with a ridge stack to the left. It presents a 3-window range with 2 coped dormer gables. The upper windows are 19th-century sashes with hoodmoulds; the first floor has three thick glazing bar 12-pane sashes, the outer ones with hoodmoulds. At ground floor level, a stepped moulded dripcourse sits above two 12-pane sashes in bead-moulded surrounds flanking a central door in moulded architrave.

To the left is the rubble stone end gable of the south wing, dating probably to the 16th or early 17th century. This gable contains one first floor 12-pane sash in a bead-moulded surround and a door in bead-moulded surround with dripcourse continued from the main front stepped across. A smaller projecting gable to the right has an upper 8-pane sash and dripstone.

The south wing is built in two sections with a straight joint between them and a ridge stack with two diagonal shafts at the original end wall. To the right is a 20th-century 3-light mullion window over 2-light and single light versions, both recessed chamfered, followed by a half-glazed door in bead-moulded surround with dripstone. To the left, at a lower level, stands another bead-moulded doorcase with a sash to its left and an eaves-breaking hipped dormer containing a 12-pane sash above. Behind the ridge stack is a chimney gable with attic single light and first floor 2-light window, both with hoodmoulds.

The south front continues westward with paired gables dating to the later 17th century, each containing 2-light recessed ovolo-moulded windows with hoodmoulds. Below are three similar 20th-century first floor windows with hoodmoulds and ground floor fenestration comprising two 20th-century doors and a leaded casement, all with hoodmoulds. An end wall stack stands at the west. Behind this section is a central gable with a lower wing running north. Behind the west end is a north-facing gable with corner stack and 2-light attic and first floor windows with hoodmoulds.

To the north, screening a rear court, is an outbuilding with two oval lights on the west side and a screen wall with moulded doorcase and two oval lights, connecting to the west end of the north wing.

The north wing dates probably to the late 17th century and was altered in the early 20th century, with extensions to the west in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The original range is constructed in squared rubble with slate roof, coped gables and end wall stacks. It features a moulded plinth, flush quoins and dripcourses over main floors. Three tall coped dormer gables with dripmoulds sit above windows, with a 5-window range below. All windows are early 20th-century work with chamfered stone surrounds and timber mullions and transoms with 20th-century leaded lights. A central projecting rebuilt gabled porch has original two columns supporting a shell hood and a bead-moulded doorcase. A lower gabled extension to the left has a Tudor-arched bead-moulded east end door.

The north front continues to the right in two sections: one of late 19th-century date and one of early 20th-century date, with coping and a ridge stack between. A two-window range to the centre features dripmoulds over early 20th-century timber mullion-and-transom leaded lights and one stone tiled ground floor square bay. The right side, early 20th-century, has a broad gable and an upper 4-light mullion-and-transom stone mullion window over a stone-tiled square bay.

The manor was owned by the Long family during the 16th and 17th centuries and by the Northey family from the 18th century into the 20th century. It is marked on F. Allen's map of 1630.