The Manor House Barn

The Manor House Barn is a barn, originally a house, dating probably to the early 16th century. It was converted to a bakehouse in the mid to late 17th century, with the north end rebuilt in the late 19th century and later used as a barn or store in the 20th century. The structure is predominantly cob on rubble footings, with some 19th-century timber framing, set against rubble. It has a rubble stack with a 19th-century brick chimney shaft and a slate roof, originally thatched.

The building comprises a long, two-room block facing east, featuring a large open barn with a byre and hayloft above at the right (north) end. A disused axial stack served the barn end. The irregular front has four windows. The left end has a 19th-century panelled door flanked by large casements with glazing bars. The right end features a first-floor 42-pane sash over the byre door and another 42-pane sash at the far right. A window with glazing bars sits above a blocked, wide, full-height doorway, positioned to the right of the centre. All windows are very dilapidated but retain some panes of glass. The roof is gable-ended to the left and hipped to the right. The rear elevation is blank.

Inside, the barn section has an early 16th-century roof consisting of four bays with side-pegged jointed cruck trusses. The cruck feet descend into the footings and rest on surprisingly thin pads of oak. Two sets of butt purlins and a ridge, along with single sets of windbraces, are visible. The roof is entirely smoke-blackened, indicating that the original building was a hall-house with low partitions and an open hearth fire. A large late 17th- to early 18th-century fireplace has an oak lintel, chamfered with run-out stops. An inserted or enlarged bread oven is located to the left side. The southern end is a complete 19th-century rebuild.

Historically, it appears this was an early house replaced in the late 17th century by the present Manor House. At that time, the stack was inserted, and the building was used as a detached kitchen or bakehouse, as documented by glebe terriers of 1649 and 1727. Described as a rare and interesting survival—a medieval hall that was never floored.