Gothelney Manor Farmhouse

Gothelney Manor Farmhouse

A manor house, now farmhouse, with attached ranges of outbuildings forming a U-shaped ensemble that encloses three sides of a courtyard. The building dates from the 15th and 16th centuries, with 18th and 19th century additions and alterations. It is constructed of random rubble with freestone dressings, some coped verges, bitumenised slate roofs, and brick stacks.

The main portion stands to the west in three storeys. An open hall on the first floor was later floored to create a second storey. The façade comprises 1:1:3 bays with a 3-stage square embattled tower positioned at the second bay. A corbelled stair turret projects from the left side of the tower from the second stage upwards, topped with a squat pyramidal stone roof. The upper stage of the tower contains a pointed 3-light Perpendicular window with iron stanchions and saddle bars. Each stage below has a narrow square-headed window also fitted with iron stanchions and saddle bars.

To the left of the tower, a bay features a narrow window on the second floor, a 2-light 20th century window on the first floor, and a moulded pointed arch door opening on the ground floor with an inserted casement. The three bays to the right project on the ground and first floors beneath an ashlar parapet. These bays contain 1, 2, 3 and 5-light stone-mullioned windows, each light finished with a 4-centred head and leaded lights. The 5-light window to the ground floor displays stained heraldic panels. The windows are topped with stopped labels, and a moulded first floor band and band below the parapet run across.

To the left side of this projecting section stands a 2-storeyed embattled entrance porch with angle buttresses. The porch features a moulded flat-pointed arch door opening with a ribbed door, a row of blank shields set in cusped recesses above, a 2-light stone-mullioned window on the first floor with 4-centred headed lights and leaded lights, topped with a stopped label, and two shields inset to the battlements. The three bays to the right are set back on the second floor and contain sash windows with glazing bars in flush frames.

At the south end of the west range stands a 2-storeyed wing with irregular fenestration. The ground floor contains a 20th century stone-mullioned window and a metal casement, both in plain cement surrounds. The first floor has a 1-light and a 2-light 20th century window, a lancet with an ogival head fitted with iron stanchion and saddle bars, and a semi-circular headed opening in a wooden surround, probably originally a doorway, now glazed. Two door openings access this wing on the ground floor: one with a pointed arch head in a chamfered stone surround with a wooden door-frame and plank door with strap hinges, and one with a square head in a wooden surround, also with a plank door with strap hinges and cement architrave.

Attached 2-storey outbuildings line the north side of the courtyard at right-angles to the main frontage. These have irregular fenestration including four narrow unglazed openings in dressed stone surrounds with iron saddle and stanchion bars, two casements with some leaded lights, and three tiff metal casements. A door opening in a flat pointed wooden architrave leads into a studded plank door with strap hinges. At the rear of these outbuildings stands a further short wing with a 3-light ovolo-moulded wooden-mullioned window on the first floor.

The east side of the courtyard is enclosed by a further outbuilding wing, predominantly of 19th century date. It features pantile and Bridgwater patent tile roofs in several stepped sections, that to the north being flipped. Irregularly placed 2-light casements and plank door openings, one with an arched head, provide fenestration and access.

The architectural character is predominantly Perpendicular and neo-Perpendicular. The roof of the former open hall contains five main and four intermediate trusses of jointed cruck form, with short posts cut to a pillar shape on the exposed side and supported on stone corbels carved to the shape of angels. The upper floor of the tower is postulated as a chapel and features similar corbels. The remainder of the roofs are of particular interest, with some 19th century neo-medieval features evident throughout the structure.