Purton Manor Farmhouse

Purton Manor Farmhouse is a manor house, now a farmhouse, dating back to 1618. It is constructed with rendered and ashlar facades, and has a concrete slate roof and stone stacks. The main block runs parallel to the River Severn, with a deep wing projecting to the north-east and a small 19th-century extension.

The front (north-west) elevation has a roof that slopes down to two storeys, featuring a large external stack to the right and a ridge stack slightly left of centre, but to the right of the porch. The main block is two storeys high with two windows, containing 19th-century two-light casement windows. To the left is a gabled, two-and-a-half-storey projection with a gable stack, and a gabled porch with a flat, moulded lintel and jambs above a plank door set within a broad, wood-moulded surround with run-out stops.

The rear, river-facing elevation is three storeys high with three windows, featuring two-light reserved hollow-chamfered mullion stone casements with stopped drips. These flank a central oculus without a drip, above varied two-light windows at the first floor and a three-light 19th-century casement, a small square light with a stopped drip, and a two-light stone chamfered mullion casement at ground floor; new work was inserted in this section at the time of a survey in September 1983. The return gable to the right is three-and-a-half storeys high, with an oculus over a two-light chamfered mullion and a two-storey hexagonal roofed bay. To the right of this is a lower, two-and-a-half-storey gable with a single light under a stopped drip, above two lights at the first floor and three lights at ground floor. A gabled porch with a three-centred lintol and roll-moulded jambs sits at the junction between the two parts. The opposite end gable contains two small square lights, one blocked, with stopped drips, and remains of drip mouldings at the first floor, plus a 19th-century casement. A 20th-century flat-roofed extension is present on the ground floor.

The interior follows a three-room plan and retains numerous early features, including a very large open fire with a plain bressummer and chamfered cheeks with pyramid stops in the north-east room. Opposite this is post-timber framing, and an adjoining panelled room with a Jacobean carved overmantel. The kitchen features a rough stone fireplace, a broad two-plank door with wood catches, and a straight staircase with raking balustrade, turned balusters, and a mop-stick handrail. Other rooms include a fireplace with a large flat lintol, a moulded mantelshelf, a decorated plaster beam, decorative ceiling plaster, oak panelling and further beams. The building is an important survival, though modified over time. It is situated above the Chepstow/Gloucester railway line in a deep cutting.