Manor House

Manor House, West Coker

A medieval manor house of ham stone with ashlar dressings and stone slate roofs, with the earliest surviving portions dating from around 1500. The building now has a U-shaped plan with a forward extension, rising to two storeys with attics. Stone chimney stacks include two that appear medieval and several octagonal stacks that may date to the early 17th century.

The west front comprises six bays of irregular fenestration. The first bay is a wide projecting unit with a plain chamfered mullioned window containing four lights below and three lights above. Adjacent is the solar with plinth and parapet, featuring a south-facing two-light pointed arch window with transom and 15th-century style tracery. The second bay contains a double two-light flat arched window with cinquefoil head lights. The third bay has a fine projecting gabled porch dating no later than 1616 (graffiti of that date bears this out), with a pointed arch entrance and crude rustication. Above the porch, the Portman arms are displayed in a rectangular recess beneath a gable with urn finial. The fourth bay is blank below, with a twelve-light hollow chamfered mullioned window above, the label of which features male and female head stops. The fifth bay has a similar three-light window without label, above which sits a corbelled flue. A two-thirds height offset buttress precedes the final blank bay, which contains a trefoil-headed window in a rectangular recess above. The north and east elevations are of similar character. A secondary entrance with a plain doorway under a stone hood on stone corbels is located on the south side, behind which stands a projection containing a dovecote at attic level.

Internally, the porch opens into a screens passage with a stair to a minstrels' gallery, leading through to the Hall. The Hall features an arch-braced collar beam trussed roof with the lowest bays on each side decorated with quatrefoil friezes rather than conventional windbraces. A fireplace and doorway date from around 1500, with the solar located in one corner. The old kitchen retains a very wide fireplace with a large chimney. A northwest room contains a chimneypiece of around 1500. A stone newel stair nearby provides access to a major bedroom with an ornamented open roof and carved wood frieze dating from around 1600. Other noteworthy features include the Portman Room with plaster ceiling frieze and a fireplace with heraldic overmantel, the attic dovecote, and a fine library added in 1910 by Sir Aston Webb.

Dating has been complicated by subsequent restoration work. An earlier manor on the site was destroyed by fire in 1457 and rebuilt between 1473 and 1500. The Portman family acquired the house in 1591 and held it until 1829, remodelling it around 1600. By 1800 it had become a tenanted farmhouse. In 1875 it was purchased by architect John Moore, who undertook vigorous restoration until his death in 1878. His brother continued the work until dying in 1883. Sir Aston Webb rebuilt the southeast wing in 1910 and may have undertaken other restoration. Despite some 'old' work appearing suspiciously new and some supposedly restored parts appearing genuinely old, the overall character remains unspoiled by alteration. The building has been described as "exquisitely beautiful".