East Worlington House

East Worlington House

A manor house, later used as a parsonage and now a private residence. The building dates from the early or mid 16th century and was remodelled in the mid or late 17th century when it was extended. Further extensive remodelling and a late 18th-century extension followed. The structure comprises rubble and cob, rendered and colour-washed, with water-reed thatch hipped roofs and brick chimney stacks of 19th-century date.

The original plan appears uncertain but likely consisted of three rooms and a through- or cross-passage. The moulded arch-braced truss towards the right-hand end indicates that a first-floor chamber existed at this end, possibly at the lower end of the house, suggesting a building of high status. Smoke-blackened rafters surviving in the roof indicate the hall was originally open to the roof. By the early 17th century, the hall had been floored and a lateral stack inserted at the back; another lateral stack probably existed at the lower end. Late 17th-century remodelling saw the right-hand room beneath the first-floor chamber given a fine plaster ceiling. In the late 18th century, the entire house was remodelled again with one-room additions at either end, creating a symmetrical front. The left-hand room was fitted as a library, the right-hand as an outhouse, though its front was treated as part of the main facade. At the same time, two wings and a staircase bay were added to the rear.

The principal front presents two storeys with a symmetrical 1:5:1 window arrangement. The first floor contains a 12-pane sash window with exposed boxes, while the ground floor has two similar sash windows and two three-light three-quarter glazed French windows. A central panelled door of 18th-century date occupies the main opening. The rear elevation features 18th-century ranges with casements and an 18th-century staircase bay with sash windows.

The interior contains a lower room, now a study, fitted with Gothick features including bookshelves. The central hall displays two lateral ovolo-moulded ceiling beams, each with two fillets and keel stops. The parlour retains a fine late 17th-century plaster ceiling divided into three panels with moulded cornices and a central oval panel. Extensive 18th-century work includes dado-panelling, panelled doors, and first-floor chimneypieces with cast-iron grates. The staircase is of dog-leg type with turned newels, stick balusters, and a ramped toad's-back handrail.

The roof has been largely rebuilt in the 18th century but preserves 16th-century arch-braced trusses. The truss over the lower end features cyma and ogee mouldings, with a diagonal threaded ridge and threaded purlins, now renewed. Over the hall-passage partition, a further 16th-century truss with a morticed ridge (unmoulded) survives with some smoke-blackened rafters. A wooden mullioned window of early date can be observed from within the roof space beneath the eaves of the rear wall.

A terrier of 1727 recorded the manor house as containing eight under-rooms: great parlour, hall, kitchen, little parlour, cellar, bottle house, and woodhouse. According to this document, all walls were of mud except the great parlour, which was of stone.