Swanborough Manor and the Dovecot to North West of the House is a Grade I listed building in the South Downs National Park local planning authority area, England. First listed on 17 March 1952. Manor house. 7 related planning applications.
Swanborough Manor and the Dovecot to North West of the House
- WRENN ID
- eternal-corbel-laurel
- Grade
- I
- Local Planning Authority
- South Downs National Park
- Constituency
- Lewes MP: James MacCleary (LD)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 17 March 1952
- Type
- Manor house
- Address
- Swanborough Manor and the Dovecot to North West of the House, Iford, Lewes, BN7 3PF
- OS grid reference
- TQ 400 078
- Coordinates
- 50.8528, -0.01111
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
Swanborough Manor and the dovecot to the north-west of the house is an L-shaped building that originally formed part of the Grange of St Pancras Priory in Lewes, serving as the administrative centre for the monastic farms in the area. The west wing dates from around 1200 and was altered and enlarged in the 15th century. It includes the hall and part of the chapel to the east. The exterior is faced with flints and stone rubble, topped with a tiled roof.
The north wall features a central chimney breast made of flints with stone quoins, a later brick top, and two tiny quatrefoil ornaments. This wall also has one blocked stone lancet window from around 1200, three 15th-century windows with two trefoil-headed lights and dripstones above, one 15th-century single-light window with a cinquefoil head, a pointed doorway from around 1200, and a blocked 15th-century doorway at first floor level with an obtusely pointed head.
The west wall has a partly obscured circular window from around 1200 and a 16th-century cinquefoil-headed window. Adjacent to this is the 15th-century gatehouse with a pointed archway on the ground floor. Above the archway was originally a passage leading to a now-demolished west wing, which has been converted into a dovecot featuring nesting boxes made of chalk blocks. The south front of the wing includes a buttress.
The east front of the medieval wing is faced with flints and stone quoins but has a red brick upper section with a tile-hung gable. It contains one window. The south wing is a timber-framed structure added in the 16th century, later refronted in the 18th century with red brick and grey headers on the ground floor, above which is tile-hanging. It has a tiled roof, sash windows with intact glazing bars, and a western wall made of painted brick featuring three half-hipped gables and a small porch. The building has two storeys and an attic, with five windows and three dormers.
Local climate
Swanborough Manor and the Dovecot to North West of the House receives an average of 850 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 59% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 90% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 15 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 85% of listed buildings. Of these, 8 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 7 applications
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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