Gatehouse At Colleton Manor

Gatehouse and integral former chapel at Colleton Manor

This is a small rectangular two-storey building on an east-west axis, probably built in the 15th century and remodelled in the 16th or early 17th century, with minor alterations likely from the early 19th century and repairs undertaken in the 20th century. It is constructed of local sedimentary ashlar with a hollow chamfered plinth moulding. The roof is of slate with coped gable ends; the apex has moulded caps and balls, and coved stone eaves cornices. A 19th-century stone stack with moulded cap sits on the rear right-hand corner.

The ground floor contains one large room entered through a doorway from a wide archway passing through the right-hand east end of the building to the forecourt of the house. This archway is not in line with the screens passage of the main house. The upper chamber is open to the roof and was originally accessed by an external stair turret at the left-hand west end of the rear north wall. A doorway, now blocked, connects the ground floor room to what must be a small closet under the stairs in the turret. The upper chamber was probably the 15th-century chapel. The front south and back north walls appear to have been refaced in ashlar, probably in the 16th or early 17th century. The first floor doorway in the east end and the first floor fireplace in the north-east corner are later alterations made after the building ceased to be used as a chapel. The upper part of the west end wall has been rebuilt in the 20th century.

On the south front, the archway has wide wave and cyma moulding, a hoodmould, and a 20th-century studded door. To its left is a small single-light ground floor window with a cavetto moulded frame and hoodmould. Above this is a larger three-light window on the first floor without a hoodmould. The north elevation facing the house has a round archway to the left with broad wave moulding, pyramid stops, and a hoodmould. A small ground floor window similar to that on the front is present, along with a first floor window of four lights, as on the front. To the right on the corner the main roof is carried down over a rectangular stair turret with a small window light at high level in its front wall and a doorway on its left-hand inner return. This doorway has a wave-moulded Tudor arch rebated on the outside for the door; the left end of the hoodmould is sunk into the front wall of the main building. The door opening is slightly tapered, and above the arch is a carved frieze of knots and flower motifs; the door is 20th-century. The west end wall has a diagonal buttress with set-offs, partly buried in the wall of the coachhouse to the south-west; the west gable has been rebuilt and rendered. The east end wall contains a circa 19th-century round-arch doorway on the first floor, approached by a flight of steps. The original doorway to the ground floor room had a rounded arch with wave moulding and pyramid stops, and an old plank door with studs.

The ceiling over the carriageway has large closely-spaced unchamfered joists. The ground floor room ceiling has deeply chamfered intersecting beams forming nine compartments with unchamfered joists. A narrow space exists between this ceiling and the west end wall. The blocked doorway to the closet or cellar under the newel stairs has a chamfered triangular, almost Tudor arch with pyramid stops. Inside the stair turret, stone winder stairs lead to the first floor doorway, which has a wooden round-arch frame with cyma moulding; this doorway has been blocked.

The first floor is open to a fine four-bay Medieval roof. The five arch-braced trusses have curved feet, known as raised crucks, and rest on large chamfered sole-plate strings. The arch braces are chamfered, the collars are cranked, and the three ties of purlins and diagonal ridge-piece are threaded through the principals. The original common rafters appear to have been replaced. A circa late 19th-century fireplace is positioned in the north-east corner of the first floor.

Colleton was the seat of the Bury family from the late 14th century. A chapel was first licensed in 1381 and again in 1402 and 1413, though the existing building might have been constructed later in the 15th century.