Caerberis Manor Hotel

Caerberis Manor Hotel

A country house in a freely interpreted Jacobean style, comprising 2 storeys arranged in 3 wings set around a courtyard in a U-shaped plan. The walls are timber-framed with rendered panels, and the roofs are tiled with tall brick stacks. Windows have wooden mullions, most incorporating small-pane metal-framed casements, with upper-storey windows mostly carried above the eaves. The main elevations facing the courtyard feature a dentilled brick string course between storeys.

The 3-bay central entrance wing faces the courtyard and the approach driveway to the east. It has a central advanced gabled bay with a 4-light oriel over a gabled porch offset to the left, which has a segmental head and double ribbed doors leading to a panelled door inside. To the right of the porch is a cross window. To the left of the central bay is a full-height 3-light bay window. On the right side is a cross window below an oriel set in the angle with the north wing. The angle itself has a polygonal full-height bay window.

The south wing comprises 5 bays. At the right end is a projecting gabled bay with 2-light windows in each storey. Further left are 6-light lower storey windows flanking a projecting central gabled bay with 6-light windows in both storeys. The left-hand bay is also a gabled projection, with a 2-light upper storey window, below which is a recently added porch with small flanking casements and inside it a ribbed door.

The north wing serves as the service end. Facing the courtyard it has a central projecting gabled bay with 6-light windows, to the left of which is a 2-light full-height bay window under a gable, and to the right a 3-light window below an oriel and gable. Rear walls are of brick with tile-hangings to gables under moulded eaves boards.

The south wing gable end has a V-shaped first-floor oriel flanked by 2-light casements. The wing is built on steeply sloping ground and is carried on substantial timber posts of elm, creating a covered and cobbled but open basement. In the centre of the basement is a brick arch, which is carried up and is stepped to form an external stack. The south, or garden, front has a spectacular appearance set high above the garden. It is of 4 bays, of which the inner bays flanking the central external brick stack are wider and brought forward under hipped roofs with large panel glazing. The right outer bay has two small 2-light casements in the lower storey, while the left-hand bay has a cross window. Set back at the left end of the south wing is the south elevation of the central entrance wing, which overlooks a small terrace and is of 3 gabled bays. An out-of-character single-storey lean-to conservatory is added to the central and right-hand bays. To the left is a 5-light mullioned and transomed window in the lower storey, with a similar 7-light window above, while the central bay has a 3-light mullioned and transomed window; the right-hand bay has a 5-light oriel. The rear of the entrance wing has an integral veranda to the southwest angle, then a full-height bay window of 5 lights in the lower storey and 7 lights above. Further left the dining room is set at a 45-degree angle, has a 6-light window facing the southwest terrace, while the side wall has a full-height gabled bay window of 5 lights below 7 lights. Further left are a 2-light lower window and a 5-light window above.

The east end wall of the north or service wing has a lower single-storey brick projection with small-pane casements and iron cresting. Beyond this is a window wrapped around the northeast angle with Tuscan columns on a dwarf wall and dentil frieze. The rear of the north wing is of brick with tile-hung gables and tile-hung upper storey to the easternmost bay.

The small entrance hall has a screen of fluted columns on high bases, beyond which is the stair hall. The open-well stair has moulded square balusters and newels. The drawing room beyond has 2 fireplaces with Ionic pilasters to the chimney pieces and is divided into 2 units by a central screen of square Ionic columns on high panelled bases. A drawing room to the left of the entrance hall has a fireplace with a moulded segmental head.

The dining room has a wide stone fireplace with a Tudor arch, said to have been brought from Emral Hall, and the walls have Elizabethan wood panelling. Plastered spine beams are decorated with relief friezes including wyverns.