Owlpen Manor

Owlpen Manor is a Grade I listed manor house of 15th-century origin with mid-16th-century hall, substantially enlarged in the early 17th century and internally remodelled in the early 18th century. The house was comprehensively restored by Norman Jewson in 1925-26.

The building is constructed of random rubble and dressed limestone, partly roughcast rendered, with ashlar and artificial stone rebuilt chimneys and a stone slate roof. It rises to two storeys with attic, its accumulation of additions over time resulting in an L-shaped plan.

The south front displays three gables of different dates. To the right, the projecting end of the 15th-century east wing was altered in the early 18th century with 2-window, 18-pane sash fenestration having bolection-moulded architraves. Side parapets to this gable are a 18th-century addition, and an attic window has been blocked. The central gable is full height with moulded coping and finial, featuring recessed cavetto-mullioned fenestration: an off-centre 6-light casement to the ground floor, a central upper-floor 4-light flanked by two single-light casements with hoodmoulds and leaded lights, and a 2-light casement to the attic, above which is a carved arms panel. This gable is roughcast rendered. Projecting forward to the left is an early 17th-century addition with moulded coping to the parapet gable and finials. It features a three-storey canted bay window with mullioned casements that reduces in width above the upper floor; the attic part has a 3-light front face and the floors below have 4-light casements. A crenellated parapet crowns this bay. Below the attic window is a date panel inscribed 'TD 1616' (for Thomas Daunt). A ridge-mounted chimney at the junction with the hall comprises a cluster of five diagonally-set shafts with moulded caps.

The east side is largely roughcast rendered except for a return from the front to the left and a projecting chimney stack with rectangular shaft. A full gable of a short cross wing projects to the right. Scattered timber casement fenestration includes scalloped jamb decoration; one 3-light casement above a doorway has a heavy chamfered timber frame, and a ground-floor cross window sits to the left. Two gabled attic dormers with leaded casements light the roof space.

The west end shows two parapet gables with finials to the 1616 wing, with fenestration arranged in line with the gables to upper floor and attic (3-light to upper floor, 2-light to attic), and an off-centre 3-light to the ground floor. Continuous dripmoulds and projecting stone rainwater chutes between the gables are notable features.

The interior is remarkable for the number and range of period features, largely preserved because the building's lowly status in the 19th century prevented substantial alteration. The hall retains a timber-beamed compartment ceiling, a moulded Tudor-arched fireplace, and on the north wall a painted coat-of-arms of Daunt quartering Owlpen. Early 17th-century oak panelling lines the parlour to the west, and a contemporary newel staircase leads to the solar in the 17th-century wing and, through one of a pair of timber Tudor-arched doorways with early fittings, into the Great Chamber above the hall. The Great Chamber walls are covered with late 17th-century and very rare painted cloth hangings, which were moved from a room in the east wing and have unfortunately been trimmed. A late 16th-century Tudor-arched fireplace appears to have a later classical entablature. The east wing parlour is entered through a round-arched classical doorway from the hall with fluted Ionic pedestal-mounted pilasters and contains an early 18th-century bolection-moulded fireplace with contemporary panelling. A staircase in this wing was designed by Norman Jewson. A bedroom formerly containing the cloth hangings now displays 20th-century Queen Anne-style panelling. Some original roof trusses survive in the east wing, featuring arched bracing with cambered collars; wind bracing has been removed. The roof over the hall appears to have been reconstructed, supporting the theory that this represents a mid-16th-century rebuilding of an original hall, possibly contemporary with the east wing. Some surviving ogee wind-bracing is visible here.

The building underwent little alteration until its rescue from a severely dilapidated state by Norman Jewson, who had been an assistant to Ernest Gimson at Sapperton. An inscribed stone on the east wing records: "This house, the greater part of which had not been inhabited for many years and had fallen into decay, was restored by Norman Jewson 1925-26".

The manor stands as a most important intact survival, situated in yew-planted gardens, with gate piers to the south, Court House to the west, a barn to the east, and a corn mill to the south-east.