Description

BILLESLEY

SP15NW Billesley Manor Hotel
1931-1/1/1
06/02/52
(Formerly Listed as:
Billesley Manor)

GV II*

Manor house, now hotel. c1610-20 with C18 extension to west,
altered in C19, and 1906-13 addition to rear wing by Detmar
Blow. Coursed squared blue lias with sandstone ashlar
dressings; steeply pitched renewed tile roof with brick or
stone ridge and internal stacks, mostly with brick diagonally
set shafts. L-plan.
EXTERIOR: south, garden, front of 2 storeys plus attic;
7-window range. End bays and entrance bay to right of centre
project under coped gables with kneelers and finials.
Ovolo-moulded plinth and dripcourse over ground floor.
Entrance bay has round-headed entrance arch with foliate
spandrels, Doric columns and Tuscan entablature; inner
Tudor-arched entrance with 3-light overlight, side lights and
paired studded doors, panelled side benches. Double-chamfered
mullioned-and-transomed windows with leaded glazing, moulded
sills to first and second floors; those to ground floor of 6
lights with 1:6:1-light bay window to each end; first floor
windows of 4 lights, but porch has 3-light windows, window to
right end is cross-mullioned with eared architrave; attic has
windows to gables and gabled dormer to left of centre: 3-light
windows to left, 2-light windows to right, the end one in
architrave.
Right return has gabled left end, catslide re-entrant bay and
symmetrical 5-window range with lower service range to right
end. Round-headed entrance has rusticated jambs and pilasters
to moulded arch with key blocks; lantern and 2-fielded-panel
door. Windows as to front, of 3, 4, or 5 lights; 3-light gable
window and 3 gabled dormers.
Rear has 2 lateral stacks and 2-storey gabled wing with
4-light single-chamfered mullioned window and C19 brick wing
with cross-casement; first floor has wooden mullioned and
transomed windows of 3 and 4 lights; adjacent wing has similar
return windows and 2-storey addition with 3-storey C20 wing
behind. Late C20 wing in C17 style to west end.
INTERIOR: wing has room with exposed beams, ovolo-moulded
fireplace and timber screen to south end with
elliptical-headed doorway and flanking panels, fluted
pilasters, triglyph frieze to entablature and 3 pierced
pediments, 15-panel door. Full-height hall to south has
staircase and gallery to 2 sides mostly C20 reconstruction;
rich C17 panelling with strapwork and fluted pilasters,
Tudor-arched fireplace and enriched overmantel, doors with
rich C17 locks of German or French workmanship; 6-light
window, now to passage, to west; archway with continuous
moulding to south leads to former screens passage to south
porch. South-east room, formerly 2 rooms, has C17 panelling,
possibly removed from first floor, and 2 Tudor-arched
fireplaces; to west of passage a similar room, with central
pier and large fireplace, doorcases with enriched
entablatures; 2 rooms to west end have C18 details:
entablatures and fireplaces with architraves, cornices and
swags, cherubs etc; winding stair to west end.
First floor has 2 richly panelled rooms with fireplaces, that
to east end with deep window openings and enriched fireplace
and overmantel with paired pilasters, reputed priest hide to
chimney breast; room to west has panelling with enriched top
panels and fireplace in partitioned-off corridor.
A good example of a C17 manor house retaining many internal
features of interest and with sympathetic early C20 additions.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Warwickshire: Harmondsworth:
1966-: 93; Victoria County History: Warwickshire: Styles P:
London: 1945-: 58-61).

Listing NGR: SP1463456780

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17552042

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair