Cowley Manor

Cowley Manor is a country house with a complex building history spanning from the late 17th century to the 20th century. A house was originally built on the site by Henry Brett in 1695; the footings and possibly some of the outer walls of this earlier structure may survive beneath the later construction.

The present Italianate house was built for James Hutchinson to the designs of G. Somers Clarke around 1855. In the late 1890s, Sir James Horlick, founder of the Malted Milk Company, significantly enlarged the building by extending the main body with 6 facsimile bays to the west and enlarging the service wing.

The building comprises a rectangular main body with a large service wing at the north-west corner. It rises to single-storey, 2-storey and 3-storey heights. The entrance front has 11 bays and features a projecting porch created around 1930. This porch contains a 6-panelled door within a lugged surround with a triple keystone at its centre, dating from the mid-19th century range. A two-bay colonnade with Tuscan columns and balustraded parapet flanks either side of the porch; this colonnade and parapet continues for one bay to the left and 6 bays to the right. These bays are lit by 4-pane sash windows. The first floor has 4-pane sashes with moulded hoods, while the second floor has similar 4-pane sashes. A balustraded parapet with modillion cornice crowns this elevation. The service wing projects forward on the right and is lit by 2, 4 and 12-pane sashes with bands between the floors, modillion cornice and balustraded parapet.

The east gable end overlooks the churchyard and features a single-storey extension with paired pilasters at the corners. This is lit by three round-headed sash windows with horns on the far left, and a similar round-headed window set back to the right. A round-headed window with leaded panes, keystone and imposts occupies the first floor.

The south front of the main body has 11 bays with a covered colonnade at the front, continuing one bay to the right and 4 bays to the left. This colonnade features 20th-century double glass doors within round-headed surrounds with spandrels decorated with either lions or griffins, flanked by Ionic pilasters. The doorways at both ends are flanked by single lights and round-headed niches containing oval panels decorated with flowers or game. The main windows are 4-pane sashes with moulded lugged surrounds, featuring panelled friezes with griffin or lion motifs and triangular pediments. The second floor has similar 4-pane sashes with lugged surrounds. A parapet with modillion cornice displaying guilloche decoration and decorated string surmounts the elevation. The roofs are hipped with gable ends and axial stacks with segmental flue divisions.

The interior has undergone significant alteration. The entrance hall has been redesigned, and most of the fireplaces, decorative plasterwork ceilings and panelling introduced by R.A. Briggs for Sir James Horlick in the late 19th century have been removed. The ballroom from the same period has been demolished. A mid-18th-century style staircase with iron twist column on vase and barleytwist balusters dates from around 1928. The library retains its round-headed built-in shelf alcoves. The dining room is panelled with fluted Ionic pilasters at intervals. Late 19th-century fielded panelling survives in the corridors. The former drawing room, now known as the ballroom, and a small adjoining room survive substantially intact, retaining tall rectangular sunken panelling with smaller panels at top and bottom. These panels are carved in relief with burning torches, theatrical masks, roses, sheathed arrows and musical instruments. A black and white marble fireplace survives in this space. One upstairs bedroom retains fielded panelling and a bolection moulded marble fireplace. A glass-walled bathroom installed by Elwes and Company of London around 1937 remains in place.