Avebury Manor

Avebury Manor is a manor house with construction phases dating to circa 1557, 1601, circa 1730, and circa 1907. The building is constructed of rendered sarsen stone and limestone, with stone-tiled roofs. It is of one, two, and three storeys. The east front, built circa 1557 for William Dunch, auditor of the Royal Mint, comprises four bays, two storeys, and an attic. This section is joined to the south by a major rebuild or extension of 1601 for Sir James Mervyn, which forms a new main front to the south. A further west wing was added to complete a 'U' shaped courtyard.

The main south block contains a single-storey hall with a cross passage at the west end, remodelled circa 1730 for Sir Richard Holford, Master in Chancery. The south block is of five bays, two storeys, featuring a central porch with a round arch on fluted pilasters and a tall shaped gable containing a niche and the initials "M J D 1601," all rebuilt around 1907. The facade has four-light stone-mullioned and twice-transomed windows, and three-light single-transomed windows to the first floor. A parapet was raised circa 1730. To the right, a forward wing has similar glazing and a parapet. The earlier east wing consists of two gabled bays, extended to the north by a further two bays and incorporating timber leaded windows and one canted bay window. The west library wing, added circa 1907, features three-light stone-mullioned and transomed windows, and a raised pedimented doorcase over a flight of external steps.

Inside, the primary entrance is now on the east side, leading to a cross passage with a 16th century room to the right, a panelled parlour with an angled fireplace and stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops. To the left is a stair, and in the south wing is the Great Parlour, featuring 17th-century panelling, a stone fireplace of circa 1600 with an arcaded frieze on end brackets and a moulded shelf, and a moulded plaster ceiling. The former hall within the main south block was remodelled as a dining room in the early 18th century, featuring a moulded dentilled cornice, corner panelled doors in eared architraves with dentilled pediments, and a similar eared stone fire surround with a framed overmantel, pedimented with supporting scrolls. Beyond the cross passage is the library, now a tea room, with bolection panelling and a heavy marble fire surround. On the upper floor of the south wing is an Elizabethan Bedroom with early 17th-century panelling, a plaster ceiling, and a robust fireplace of circa 1600 with a gadrooned surround, arabesque frieze and carved wood overmantel. Other 17th-century panelled rooms are present, as is a Queen Anne Bedroom with a coved ceiling featuring a guilloche and a dentilled raised central section. The staircase to the first floor is of the 18th century with three turned balusters per tread. The attic stair has 17th-century railings with turned balusters. The attic rooms include a gable stack with a chamfered fireplace and side opening, and reset 17th-century panelling used as cupboards.

The house occupies or is near the site of a Benedictine cell of St Georges de Boscherville, founded in 1114 and allocated to Fotheringhay College in 1411; fragments of this earlier structure are incorporated into the current fabric. Significant restoration work was undertaken by Sir Walter Jenner, owner from 1907, Alexander Keiller, the antiquary, and others.