The Court Parlour

The Court Parlour

This is the surviving service wing of Hastings Manor House, a late 14th-century structure of limestone rubble with ashlar dressings, standing on the east side of Yardley Hastings High Street. Built to a standard medieval three-cell plan, the manor house originally comprised a hall with central open fireplace and a parlour bay to the east, both now demolished (known only from excavations dating to the 18th century or earlier). The contemporary detached kitchen survives within the present manor house. The Court Parlour itself represents the complete service bay and is one of the most significant surviving examples of 14th-century domestic architecture in the region.

The building stands three storeys high with a plain-tile roof and a stone end stack. The ground floor contains a pantry with a central pair of moulded door openings leading to the cross passage, wall cupboards, and a blocked fireplace. Below this, accessible by steep stone steps from the rear end of the cross passage and ventilated by four wall vents with slit openings above ground level, is the buttery. The first floor comprises a chamber, reached from a moulded doorway in the passage adjacent to the front door, interpreted as a castellan's or bailiff's lodging. This was originally subdivided into a living room with wall fireplace and a sleeping area distinguished by higher window sills and a garderobe set within the thickness of the rear wall.

The fenestration demonstrates skilled medieval craftsmanship. External door arches to the cross passage survive partially, moulded with early casement moulding to the front and double-chamfered to the rear. Two-light windows have square heads at pantry floor level and pointed arched heads with ogee tracery at the dwelling floor above, all with stone relieving arches and wood lintels, though the glazing is missing. A rear garderobe, slightly corbelled, features two small quatrefoil lights. The building is strengthened by side and offset angle buttresses to the west corners, and retains an original octagonal moulded stone stack at the gable.

The interior preserves exceptional medieval carpentry. Floors comprise heavy, closely spaced oak joists, probably original; those of the pantry floor are now supported on reused cambered collars, likely salvaged from the demolished hall. A stair to the first floor features quarter-cut treads pegged to bearers, while a similar stair partially preserved on the first floor gives access to a suspended attic, probably a later medieval alteration.

The roof structure is an outstanding example of 14th-century carpentry. Two bays feature a short principal construction with cambered collar on arcade plates, chamfered arch braces with the arch continued on the collar soffit, and heavy curved wind braces. Jowled crown posts support the collar purlin and straight collar, with a second tier of wind braces; the collar purlin is braced to a wall post at the gable end. Lower collars and short principals are jowled to contain their joints.

The property was held by the Hastings family in the 14th century until 1389, when Lawrence de Hastings, who had become Earl of Pembroke in 1339, ceased ownership. The former service bay has undergone no substantial alteration or modernisation since the 14th century, making it an exceptionally well-preserved testament to medieval domestic life.