Manor Farmhouse

Manor Farmhouse is a large house on the north side of Beckford Road at Alderton. It comprises a reputed medieval hall with a probable 16th-century cross wing, a medieval range rebuilt in the 17th century, and a range parallel to the hall rebuilt around 1800. The exterior combines ashlar and 20th-century close-studded timber framing (replacing earlier timber framing), with a concrete tile roof and ashlar stack.

The hall range is now 16 storeys with an attic. The 16th-century range and early 19th-century range are both 2 storeys.

The entrance front features a four-light stone-mullioned window with a king mullion to the ground floor of the hall range. An early studded plank door with fillets stands far left within a Tudor-arched surround with carved spandrels, with an unused datestone above the door and a continuous dripmould. A four-light stone-mullioned casement with a king mullion and stopped hood lights a large Cotswold dormer upper right, while a two-light stone-mullioned casement with stopped hood serves the attic. Traces of Roman numerals from a sundial survive on the gable, which is also reputed to be dated 1718. A 20th-century two-light dormer sits above the door. The 16th-century cross wing projects forwards to the left, displaying 20th-century four-light steel casements to the ground floor of the gable end and a similar casement above.

The garden front facing early 19th-century work is symmetrical with three windows. Tripartite sashes with plain architraves and triple keystones occupy the ground floor; three 12-pane sashes with triple keystones sit on the first floor. A central 18th-century door retains two flush panels at the bottom, a fanlight, and an open triangular pediment supported on stone brackets above pilasters. The front is finished with a coped parapet.

Internally, an early panelled door with thumb latch opens from the cross passage into the former hall, which now has a first floor supported on intersecting beams with deep flat chamfers. A large inglenook fireplace with bressumer and geometric flagged flooring incorporating a cross motif occupies this room. Beams with moulded stops appear within the screens passage.

The 16th-century range contains a small stone fireplace with a Tudor-arched surround and carved spandrels. Beams here have deep flat chamfers and large stepped stops; flagged flooring is present. A possibly original staircase with crudely hewn rectangular balusters is partly incorporated in the wall. Parts of two arch-braced collar beam trusses are visible at first-floor level.

A room lined with 17th-century panelling contains a basket-headed cavetto-moulded stone fireplace with rosettes upper right and left. A timber overmantel is decorated with three basket-headed blind arches with imposts and stylized keystones, with geometric decoration in relief above. The room has been reduced in size in the 20th century and the panelling reused to form a dado and several panelled doors on the ground floor. Another upstairs room displays a Tudor-arched stone fireplace with jewelled stops.

The range rebuilt in the early 19th century contains an open-well staircase with wreathed balustrade, stick balusters, and balusters with simple double vesicas. Several 18th-century hob grates survive in the bedrooms. Six-panel doors, some with reeded architraves, are present throughout. A flat-ceiled cellar lies beneath this range.