South Wraxall Manor, With Garden Wall To South

South Wraxall Manor, with garden wall to south

A Grade I manor house, originally built in the early 15th century for the Long family and substantially altered in the late 16th and 17th centuries, with further work around 1700 and restoration circa 1900 by architect A.C. Martin for E. Richardson Cox. The building is constructed of random rubble stone with a stone slate roof and stone stacks.

The manor follows a medieval plan of a 4-bay hall with screens passage positioned on the east side of a courtyard. Services are now housed in the north range, with a gatehouse to the south. The main block is single-storey with attic rooms.

The 8-window hall range features a 2-storey porch to the right, with a moulded Tudor-arched opening beneath a hoodmould, diagonal buttresses, and a 2-light Perpendicular window above. A moulded cornice with gargoyles rises to a parapet. The hall itself displays a 2-light Perpendicular window, a large gabled stack, and a square bay containing a 3-light Perpendicular window to the ground floor with a square-headed traceriedfenestration above. A late 16th-century gabled addition to the left has two mullioned casements to the cellar, a large 8-light mullioned and transomed window to the main floor, and a 3-light mullioned casement to the attic. Another gabled bay to the left contains a 4-light mullioned and transomed window with a 3-light attic mullioned casement, finished with saddleback coping.

To the right of the hall is the gable end of the former services range, containing 17th-century mullioned casements. The gatehouse range projects to the right with a lateral stack, 2-light mullioned casements with cusped arched lights, and a 3-light mullioned casement to the first floor. An early 20th-century elliptical archway opens to the right, with a gabled dormer above containing a 2-light mullioned casement. A throughway beneath the gatehouse includes a blocked doorway and winding stairs to the upper floor. The south side of this range features 20th-century double panelled doors leading to the gabled gatehouse, with a hoodmould bearing lozenge terminals above an elliptical archway. A 15th-century oriel window with cusped lights sits above, flanked by diagonal buttresses. An early 20th-century square bay with mullioned casement stands to the right.

The south side of the former service range displays buttresses with offsets and 17th-century mullioned casements of three and two lights. One ground-floor window retains pointed form with Y tracery. The rear features an early 20th-century addition of a 2-storey corridor with a formerly open 4-bay loggia to the ground floor. The first floor employs studded timber-framing with Ionic pilasters and wood mullioned casements.

The rear of the hall range contains a square stair turret with a 4-light cross window featuring cusped arched lights, flanked by 3-light Perpendicular windows and a square light to the first floor. A projecting wing to the right incorporates 12-pane sashes in moulded architraves, a round-arched half-glazed door to the north side, and a large 8-light mullioned and transomed window with hipped roof to the right, which lights the rear of the dining room.

The north range has a Tudor-arched doorway to the left of centre, a blocked pointed doorway, and a planked door to the right. A lateral stack and 2-light mullioned casements with cusped arched lights and hoodmoulds punctuate the elevation. A projecting stair turret stands to the left. The left return of the north range contains 3-light mullioned casements with arched lights to both ground and first floors. The rear has a 20th-century door to the right portion (now offices) and a 2-light mullioned casement with cusped lights to the left; the first floor has an inserted 20th-century steel casement and mullioned casement. An early 20th-century parallel kitchen range, attached to the left, has a hipped roof and mullioned casements. The range continues to the left with a closed 2-bay loggia and a 4-light mullioned and transomed casement to the first floor. The east gable end features an open 4-bay loggia on Tuscan columns to the ground floor.

Interior features of exceptional quality include the hall, which retains its original 4-bay open roof with arch-braced collar trusses carried on carved wooden animal corbels. Cusped panels fill the spaces between principals and purlins. A stone fireplace dated 1598 displays rich strapwork to its overmantel and a square surround. A late 16th-century carved wooden screen of exceptional fineness stands at the lower end, featuring arched openings, Ionic pilasters, and a gallery above. A late 16th-century passage and stair turret project to the rear of the hall, retaining Perpendicular windows and buttresses from its earlier external wall. An 18th-century staircase with turned balusters and ramped handrail rises nearby.

The dining room, positioned at the upper end of the hall and formerly the solar, was added by Walter Long in the late 16th century. It features a very fine barrel-vaulted plaster ceiling with thin ribs and pendants. An extravagantly carved stone fireplace displays caryatids and figures within niches, with a square surround. Full wainscot panelling with pilasters lines the walls, and an unusual stone canted projection opposite the fireplace contains three shell-headed niches.

The north-east wing drawing room contains a fine late 16th-century stone fireplace with Ionic columns and two strapwork cartouches to the overmantel bearing Latin inscriptions. Full fielded panelling and a shell-headed niche to the right of the fireplace enhance the space. The bedroom above features a large stone fireplace with two tiers of coupled columns and an overmantel with cartouches.

The south-east wing has a 7-bay arch-braced collar truss roof with wind-braced purlins. The so-called Raleigh Room on the first floor retains linenfold panelling and a Tudor-arched fireplace. The stairs to this wing from the screens passage are 18th-century, with three turned or barley-twist balusters per tread and a moulded ramped handrail. Good joinery is evident throughout the house, including 16th-century moulded doorcases and wainscot doors, alongside some 18th-century panelled doors in moulded architraves.

A rubble stone wall with saddleback coping encloses the west side of the courtyard, continuing to gate piers at the south entrance. Two moulded Tudor-arched doorways punctuate this boundary.

Robert Long owned the manor here in 1433; this building may represent a 15th-century rebuilding of the manor on a new site, with Manor Farmhouse possibly representing the 14th-century manor house. Robert Long served as Member of Parliament for Wiltshire in the mid-15th century. The Long family retained the property until the early 20th century.