Description

CHARNEY BASSETT
SU398E
6/83 Charney Manor
10/11/52 (Formerly listed as The Manor
House)

GV I

Manor House. Late C13 with C17 wing and later alterations and additions. Random
limestone rubble; stone slate roof; stone stacks. First-floor solar and chapel
built onto right side of front wall of solar over undercroft. Front wall of
chapel has Y-tracery 2-light window and semi-circular arch over round-headed
chamfered doorway adjoining slit window. Front left wall of solar block has
Y-tracery 2-light window, 2 close-set lancets and corner buttress with gablet.
Gabled roof; gable end stack to solar block. Left side wall has a one-light
trefoil-headed window to chapel and, to the solar block, 2 close-set lancets and
3 buttresses. C17 central wing: front wall brought forward c.1858 has 4-window
range of 2-light mullioned windows; hipped roof to central projecting bay with
4-light mullioned and transomed windows over studded door set in square-headed
chamfered architrave flanked by one-light transomed windows; 2 dormers and ridge
stack. Wing to right demolished and rebuilt c.1858 in similar style and
materials; single-storey block and wing at right angles with one reset C13 slit
window attached to front gable of right wing. Rear of C17 wing has similar
3-window range: Tudor-style doorway with 4-centred arch and moulded architrave
to 6-panelled door; gabled porch with similar doorway; 2 hipped dormers.
Interior: Undercroft has C13 fireplace with shouldered architrave and bread
oven; doorways to right have. chamfered round-headed arch to rear and chamfered
pointed arch to front; large plain beams and joists. Similar chamfered pointed
arch to first-floor solar; late C16 fireplace and late C13 crown post roof with
4-way struts and square base and abacus to octagonal crown post. Solar
originally extended further west: C17 rear wall blocks late C13 doorway with
chamfered pointed arch in rear left corner. Rear wall has four late C17 two- and
3-light stone mullioned chamfered windows; one 2-light window has additional C20
light; C20 window below in similar style. Chamfered pointed arch over doorway
from solar to east chapel. Trefoiled piscina and two-bay roof remodelled in mid
C19 but otherwise retaining tie beam. Centre wing has C17 collar-truss roof with
butt purlins. Reset late C13 quatrefoil window in west wall of right wall. An
important surviving example of a late C13 solar and undercroft with attached
chapel. The Manor House was owned by Abingdon Abbey.
(T.H. Turner, Some Account of Domestic Architecture in England, 1851,
pp.153-155; Buildings of England: Berkshire, pp.112-3; V.C.H.1 Berkshire,
Vol.IV, p.466; M. Wood, Excavations at Charney Bassett Manor, Transactions of
the Newbury and District Field Club, Vol.12 (1976, pp.42-7).

Listing NGR: SU3809794448

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Charney Manor at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q5086554

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

• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  For the Record