The Manor House Hotel

The Manor House Hotel

This former merchant's house was built in 1603 for Thomas Trock on the site of an earlier 16th-century house. It was extended in 1718 by William and Theophila Sellicke.

The ground floor of the principal elevation, north wall, and south wall are constructed of Culm sandstone laid as coursed rubble stone with some regular, square, and finely jointed blocks. Volcanic Trap stone and Beer stone provide dressings. The upper floors of the principal elevation and rear elevation are timber-framed. The east and north elevations have been rendered. Four gable-end roof structures are covered in slate tiles. The windows are oak-framed, with lead and later cast iron guttering and rainwater goods.

The building follows a three-room cross-passage plan, with the hall and parlour to the left (south) and the service end to the right (north). A small rear wing to the rear of the service end has been absorbed into a larger early 18th-century rear addition.

The three-storey principal elevation has four separately gabled bays. The first floor is marked by coving, and the second floor is jettied. The main entrance comprises an early 18th-century arched doorway with a Gothic fanlight and panelled reveals, flanked by Tuscan columns and shaped brackets supporting a large shell hood. The three ground-floor windows are five-light casement windows with twenty-one leaded panes per light, dating from 1718. The first floor contains two six-light and one ten-light oriel windows with ovolo-moulded mullions and transoms, the largest having a central king-mullion. All upper floor windows are supported on coved sections and shaped brackets. The second floor has a five-light oriel window beneath each gable. Shaped brackets support the roof valleys. The stone end walls are corbelled at second-floor level in line with a carved timber string course. The left end wall bears an inscription stone reading 'TT', and the right bears 'TT 1603'.

The north elevation has a first-floor stack and retains lead guttering with vine leaf decoration. Two early 17th-century gable end walls survive exposed on the rear elevation, which is built from brick with burnt blue-grey headers. The rear elevation features sash windows and a round-headed stair window. A rainwater head dated 1718 bears the initials S, W, and T arranged in a triangle.

Interior partitions are timber-framed with cob infill. The hall cross beam, now concealed, has double ovolo moulding with run-out stops. The hall chamber fireplace, also concealed, has ovolo-moulded sandstone jambs. The hall retains early 18th-century bolection-moulded panelling, an ogee-moulded cornice, and two arch panels, which were copied on the renovated lower-end ceiling in the early 1980s. A 17th-century Beer stone fireplace survives at the north end of the first-floor room. A 17th-century newel staircase to the rear survives at first and second-floor levels. One second-floor room retains a 17th-century square-headed door surround with ovolo moulding. An 18th-century stair with flat handrail, square newel posts, twisted balusters, and moulded closed string is accessed through an 18th-century round-headed arch. Contemporary plaster cornices appear throughout.

The four gable-end roofs each have two trusses of principal rafters pegged at the apex and collars that are dovetailed and fixed by nails. Two rows of through-purlins support the pegged common rafters. The front bays are braced with wind braces of variable scantling and curvature belonging to a medieval carpentry tradition, set within an otherwise early 17th-century roof design.