Ashleworth Manor

ASHLEWORTH MANOR

A house of complex build history. The main range is said to date from circa 1460, built for Abbot Newbury of Bristol, though it may be slightly later. The front of the left cross wing was reconstructed as an exact external copy in the mid-19th century, probably by and for T. Fulljames. Further alterations and extensions were made in 1903 by W.B. Wood.

The building comprises a medieval hall range with cross wings arranged in an H-plan, five windows wide with a central porch entrance. The structure is timber framed with close studding and rendered panels, set on a stone plinth, with Sussex bond brickwork and a tiled roof. The front elevation presents an E-plan, with the entire frontage jettied and articulated by three gables. It stands two and a half storeys high, with a single-storey service wing at one end.

The exterior displays close studded timber framing with heavy corner and main posts featuring integral nibs and curved braces to beams. All windows are ovolo moulded externally with hollow chamfers internally, fitted with iron opening lights (probably 19th century) and leaded lights throughout. Ground floor panels are storey-height, with a main projecting beam supporting the jetty. The right side features a four-light mullion and transom window with three mortices in the beam above for an original window head. To the left, in a set back, is a three-light casement with lowered sill and three mortices visible in the beam above. A blocked window exists against the porch on the left. The open porch sits at ground floor level with bench seats on each side, two two-light open windows in the sides, and moulded ceiling beams. The porch entrance has a moulded surround, original double-boarded door with blind panelling to the front, a Y knocker, and a Tudor arch with leaf decoration to the spandrels. A curved brace runs to the sill beside this, with a two-light casement and a main post with central nib close to the corner wing. A four-light casement appears in the left wing, with a boarded door and brick gable containing a timber-framed truss with a king post and herringbone braces (a 1903 addition) adjacent to a brick wall bounding the yard.

First floor fenestration includes a moulded sill at the jetty with an applied moulded mid rail and framing two panels high between windows. Curved braces run from corner posts to the sill in each gable; moulded cambered tie beams span the end gables (straight to the centre), with moulded collars to the end gables and plain barge boards. The right gable displays a four-light casement with a single light above to the loft. A blocked window appears on the left return, with a three-light casement in a recess where the top of a brace to the main post is largely hidden by the porch room. Blocked windows exist in the returns to the porch, with a two-light casement to the front and two slits in the studs for ventilation to the loft above. To the left is a two-light casement with a brace to the main post adjoining the wing, and a four-light casement to the front of the wing with a single light to the attic above. The front of the left return is plain brick. A moulded brick chimney with a nib to its side sits on the right against the cross wing (probably 17th-century brickwork); brick chimneys also appear on the ridge and left return of the left wing.

The right return is jettied, with ground floor featuring two arch braces to main posts and a three-light mullion and transom window added in 1903 in place of a door. To the right is a three-plank 15th-century door with carved top and bottom rails, reused from inside the house, accessed via a door off a quarter landing up four stone steps. A blocked window lies to the right. First floor has a moulded sill with curved braces to end posts and a moulded mid rail as on the front, but plain under windows where applied sills for canted oriels (now removed) once sat. Three-light casements appear on the left with mortices for two brackets beneath, and two two-light casements to the right with mortices for a single bracket below; the centre window probably dates to the 18th century.

The interior contains a hall with a wide stone fireplace featuring a Tudor arch with hollow chamfer and a 1662 cast-iron fireback. The ceiling is quartered with heavy moulded beams and exposed moulded joists. The right wing displays exposed moulded beams, with a circa 1850 stone fireplace in the front room set within a four-centred arch with buttresses. To the left, on both floors, a lateral beam features plain chamfer, with an angled beam across bearing mortices for close studding. The 1903 stairs employ splat balusters; mid-19th-century doors throughout feature four vertical panels with cover strips and original brass locks.

The room over the hall originally had its wall to the porch room removed. It contains moulded main beams cambered across the building, with a plastered ceiling and hidden unmoulded joists above. A wide stone fireplace with flat lintel and plain chamfer is present. Similar beams appear in the wing to the right, with moulded main posts. The original roof features angle strut trusses with two pairs of purlins running to the cross wing, with a curved ridge and thin wind braces in two tiers.

The medieval house consisted of the cross wing, hall range and porch; it probably originally extended one bay further to the left on the site of the left cross wing, which may have been demolished before the 19th century. The mid-19th-century front of the left cross wing was built as an exact external copy of the right wing. In 1903, the left wing was extended to the rear in timber framing, and a low single-storey service scullery wing on the right was demolished, replaced by a single-storey service wing to the left. Contemporary 1903 drawings and 19th-century photographs are held at the house.