Stockwell Manor

Stockwell Manor is a large detached house of 15th or early 16th-century origin, extensively remodelled in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It incorporates an earlier window of 16th or 17th-century date into its fabric. The building is constructed of coursed volcanic trap rubble and some cob, partly plastered, beneath hipped and gabled-end thatched roofs.

The house developed from a formerly three-room, cross-passage plan with a large two-room lower end wing, though the junction between these elements was altered by 20th-century remodelling. It is two storeys throughout. Large external lateral stacks heat the Hall and lower end, with a former end stack (now axial) heating the parlour. The higher end was extended in the 19th century with another end stack erected at that time. The lower end wing has two end stacks. All stacks, excluding a late 20th-century boiler stack, have brick shafts.

The main range front features a mid-19th-century refenestration of the hall and parlour to create an almost symmetrical three-window range. The upper windows sit under large gables; the outer windows are tripartite hornless sashes of 6:12:6 lights, whilst the central window has a twelve-pane hornless sash. Either side of a dentilled porch with canopy on console brackets, pilasters and panelled reveals are tripartite hornless sashes of 4:12:4 lights. The right-hand end of the main range was further extended in the 19th century with two four-light casement windows to the first floor, one to the ground floor, and a French window.

The rear of the main range shows two dominant external lateral stacks. That to the lower end features three small inglenook windows beneath a hipped thatched roof; that to the Hall has three set-offs and a small side window. Between them are two two-light casement windows. A large two-light casement window with glazing bars and transom, probably early 20th-century, lights the stairwell. The 19th-century extension has a round-headed doorway under a broken pediment with architraves, two first-floor two-light windows, and two below.

The lower end wing front displays a symmetrical three-window range with two- and three-light casement windows to the first floor and a three-light casement window either side of a glazed door with heavy surround at ground level. A projecting porch with Arts and Crafts detailing marks the junction between wing and main range and leads to an entrance hall set back from the line of the wing. The rear of this wing has two 19th-century two-light casement windows to the first floor, with one single-light and one two-light window below.

The interior contains a plank and muntin screen dividing the Hall and parlour, chamfered with pyramid stops and mason's mitres. Three massive chamfered cross beams with step stops cross the space; one is set over but slightly forward of the screen and represents a parlour jetty. The parlour has a chamfered and stopped cross beam and 17th-century panelling, including some leather panels, apparently brought from elsewhere. The former end wall contains two medieval timber windows. The ground-floor window, formerly of four lights but now with only one surviving mullion, features tightly cusped trefoil heads and an original sill, dated to the 15th century. The first-floor window has two lights with intersecting tracery; it was clearly repositioned here from elsewhere, though its chamfered surround dates to the 16th or 17th century and the original window may be 14th-century. The roof over the main range has four jointed crucks spanning the lower end, Hall and parlour. The Hall, comprising two bays, retains smoke-blackened trusses, a ridge-piece and some battening; the lower end is less heavily sooted; the parlour roof is clean. The lower end wing has a plank and muntin screen dividing its two rooms with an arched chamfered door lintel, possibly also brought from elsewhere.