Manor House

Manor House, Bickington Love Lane

This late 16th-century house, formerly known as Peacehaven and previously a farmhouse, stands on the north side of Love Lane. The building retains its original three-room and through-passage plan, with a rectangular stair turret positioned at the centre of the rear wall. By the 17th century, a heated parlour had been added. The house is constructed of stone with solid roughcast walls, and is roofed in asbestos slate with a hip at the left-hand end.

The front elevation is dominated by two substantial chimneysstacks. The central stack is a large projecting feature with offsets and thatch weatherings, tapering towards a capped top which now includes a small added shaft of 20th-century date; at its base is a small semi-circular oven projection. The right-hand gable contains a projecting stone stack with offsets and weatherings, slightly tapered with a projecting stone course as cap and a short 20th-century added shaft above. The four-window front has been partly rebuilt at the right-hand end, where windows feature segmental arches. The windows are fitted with 19th or 20th-century wood casements with glazing bars. To the right of the front stack, built out level with it, is an oriel at the upper end of the hall, containing in its side-wall a slit window with a thick wood frame and a pointed head. The main doorway, positioned to the left of the stack, is approached through an open-fronted porch with a pent roof. The door has an ovolo-moulded wood lintel with run-out stops, a straight-headed frame with ovolo and hollow mouldings and large worn stops at the foot. The door itself is of plank construction with studs and wrought-iron strap-hinges bearing fleurs-de-lis terminals, decorated with vertical moulded ribs and a matching strip along the top, though the right-hand rib and bottom strip are now missing. The left-hand gable-wall has 20th-century French windows on the ground storey; the second storey retains a 19th-century wood casement window with glazing bars to the left. A 2-light ovolo-moulded wood window appears in the rear wall of the second storey.

The building is two storeys in height, with single-storey lean-to and 20th-century additions. A lean-to extension, probably of some antiquity, stands behind the parlour to the right.

The interior preserves notable late 16th and 17th-century features. The through-passage is divided by a stud-and-panel screen to the right, with chamfered studs and scratch mouldings. The hall fireplace in the front wall has a wood lintel with very broad ogee and ovolo moulding and bar stops, splayed granite ashlar sides, and an oven with a round-headed granite opening and shallow ledge. The central upper-floor beam and half-beam at the upper end carry ovolo and hollow mouldings with run-out stops. A heavy oak bench against the upper-end wall is surmounted by late 16th or early 17th-century panelling, two panels high, finished with a moulded frieze and bracketed cornice; this panelling extends into the oriel beside the fireplace, which contains a heavy oak window-seat. The parlour features a gable-fireplace with a chamfered wood lintel having scroll-stops. The lower room to the left of the through-passage contains a fireplace in the rear wall with a carved wood lintel said to have come from Plymouth; it bears the date 1654 and the initials TC and G.

A newel stair at the rear of the hall has old winding steps, the lowest being a solid block. A plank door from the hall features two sunk panels with moulded frames in the centre and wrought-iron strap-hinges, with a chamfered square-headed frame with rounded step-stops. At the top are a pair of similar door-frames with a common lintel. The upper storey originally contained approximately four rooms. A stud partition, probably original, is nailed to the truss above the lower side of the through-passage. At the upper end is a gable-fireplace with rounded back and base of slates on edge, a chamfered wood lintel with scroll-stops, and an old plank door with a narrow centre panel having bead-moulded edges and wrought-iron strap-hinges.

The roof timbers are unblackened. The principal rafters have notched apexes, threaded purlins and slots for a threaded ridge-piece. Cranked collars with shaped ends are halved into the principals. Some principals have short vertical tenoned struts at their feet against the wall-face. Most common rafters have been replaced.

Historical records from 1563 and 1577 refer to "the manor or lordship" of Lovelane. Although this house was probably built for a gentleman, there is as yet no proof that he was also lord of the manor.

In a barn at the rear of the house (not separately listed) is a 2-light wooden window with flat-splay mullions and a hole for an upright glazing-bar in the centre of each light.