Sortridge Manor

Sortridge Manor is a manor house of mid-16th-century origin, substantially altered and expanded over subsequent centuries. The building exemplifies the evolving domestic plan of a significant farmhouse property, with documented changes from the 17th century onwards and major remodelling in the early 18th century.

The main structure is built of slatestone rubble, coursed with some granite and featuring granite dressings. The sides and rear are of random rubble with some slate-hanging. The roof is of Welsh slate with 17th and 18th-century handmade ridge tiles to the rear, hipped to the right, and is topped with rendered battered ridge stacks and a gable stack to the left.

The original building likely followed a conventional three-room-and-through-passage plan, with the lower end to the right and higher end to the left. The hall and inner room are now incorporated as one space. During the 17th century, the building was made symmetrical and a front porch was added to the front of the passage. At this time or shortly after, a further unheated room was probably added to the lower end. In the early 18th century, the passage was widened to form a stair hall, the lower service end was converted into a parlour, and a rear service wing was built behind the original hall. A rear passage was constructed to provide access between the main range and lower end. This accretion created an irregular L-plan, though the front remains symmetrical.

The house is of two storeys with a front elevation of 3:1:3 windows. A central two-storey gabled porch features a round-headed opening with a 19th-century half-glazed round-headed door with strap hinges. Above this is a three-light mullioned window with hollow-chamfered and flat-faced mullions, fitted with metal-framed casements with glazing bars and 20th-century leaded lights, and topped with a hood-mould. Other front windows are similar but lack the hood-mould. A moulded string course runs over the door and is carried across the lintels of all ground-floor windows. Above this string course, the left and right sides feature slate-hanging. The right and left elevations display three similar three-light mullioned windows at ground-floor level and three smaller three-light windows at first-floor level. At cellar level to the right are three small two-light mullioned windows with plate glass, some boarded. Cellar windows and some ground-floor windows retain iron stanchions. Two small buttresses stand to the left of the porch.

The right return is slate-hung, with scalloped slates at first-floor level. The ground-floor centre bay projects forward and contains a 20th-century copy of a three-light granite mullioned window. At first-floor level, a forward-set section features a 20th-century two-light wooden casement. A two-storey addition extends along the rear to the right, with a former opening at ground floor marked by a segmental brick head. At first-floor level is a similar two-light wooden casement. A covered area on three wooden piers encloses a four-centred arched 20th-century door through a curtain wall.

The left return has the string course returned and features a similar granite 20th-century replacement narrow two-light mullioned window and a two-light wooden casement at first floor. A large external stack, possibly rebuilt, and a small brick lean-to in the angle with the rear wing are present. The two-storey rear wing has a hipped roof and stone weathered ridge stack. It contains three windows: at ground floor, a small three-light granite mullioned window as on the front and a four-light granite mullioned window, possibly reset from the rear of the house when the rear wing was constructed; a four-centred arched granite opening with half-glazed double doors of late 19th or early 20th-century date. At first floor are two wooden two-light casements in formerly larger openings and a two-light granite mullioned window matching the front.

The rear of the rear wing has a 20th-century two-light casement at ground floor to the right and a small two-light three-pane casement to the left, both under timber lintels beneath an irregular joint to the rear range forming an inner courtyard. Granite quoins are present. The rear elevation has a two-span roof with a ridge vent, hipped to the right, and an external lateral stack to the rear left. The ground floor contains a 20th-century nine-pane light and door with glazed panel and timber lintel. An upper loading door is situated to the right. The inner side of the rear wing has, at ground floor, a three-light wooden 20th-century casement and double doors with a triangular hood. At first floor are two 20th-century casements, and at second floor are two 20th-century three-light casements, all beneath slate-hanging. A small 20th-century two-storey addition occupies the angle with the rear of the main range.

The rear of the main range features a steep rendered gable with an eight-pane sash at first floor. At ground floor is a three-light granite mullioned window with hood-mould, set inside a glazed porch containing a 20th-century two-light casement and half-glazed door. A 20th-century two-storey corridor addition runs along the rear to the left to provide access to first-floor rooms of the main range.

The interior porch contains an inner granite doorway with a depressed four-centred arch, hollow-chamfered with large square stops bearing raised roundels. The door features raised moulded battens applied around the border and forming a central pediment.

The entrance hall contains an open-well early 18th-century staircase with twisted balusters alternating with turned balusters, turned pendants, and a plain newel. A door to the cellar stair has a 19th-century moulded frame with raised roundels and run-out stops, with a straight granite stair descending to the cellar. The room to the right is panelled with bolection mouldings and includes a recessed cupboard with shaped shelves on the inner wall and a fireplace with moulded wooden surround. The lower end room to the right has been largely remodelled and features a similar four-centred arched granite doorway to the rear passage with curtailed hood-mould, chamfered and stopped surround, and granite corbels along the outer wall to the passage. The wall steps out at the granite window.

The room to the left, formerly the hall, is separated from the entrance hall by a partition and contains a fireplace with hollow-chamfered flat lintel and jambs. A door to the rear passage is of granite with a four-centred arch, chamfered with straight cut stops. The end room has a slate floor and a granite fireplace with roll mouldings and a central tympanum on flat head.

The rear passage features a granite floor and a granite doorway with a four-centred arch, chamfered with straight cut stops. The arch spandrels are cut into triangles beneath the hood-mould. The door has applied moulded battens.

At first floor, the room to the left of the entrance hall has a chamfered granite fireplace. The room to the right has a fireplace with bolection moulded surround. The rear wing is approached by two 19th-century winder stairs. 18th-century panelled doors are present, and the room to the left of the entrance hall features a three-light granite mullioned window, formerly external, now closed by cupboards to the rear.

The roof structure displays six bays (as visible at the time of survey in July 1985) with principal rafters that are crossed, two rows of through purlins, and one truss with a cambered collar.

The rear wing probably represents a rebuilding of an earlier rear wing, with wall thicknesses varying along the rear passage. The building demonstrates interesting plan evolution and retains high-quality features from its principal periods. The staircase position is comparable to that of Stuart House in Lostwithiel, Cornwall.

The building has undergone significant later alterations, including rebuilding at the right return following destruction by fire, probably in the late 19th or early 20th century, with further modifications made subsequently.