Description

An estate manager's farm house, built in typical gabled Cotswold vernacular style in 1910 for Captain Robert Brassey by Alfred Groves and Sons of Milton-under-Wychwood, with architectural advice from Mr M Gray, a London architect.

MATERIALS: the house is constructed from coursed rubble with ashlar quoins and dressings, under Cotswold stone roofs, with large rubble stacks on the ridges.

PLAN: the house has a T-plan, with principal rooms to the main, south-east range, and a former service wing running to the rear, with a further range at right angles. A former dairy projects to the north of the service range.

EXTERIOR: the building is of two storeys, with stone-mullioned windows under hood moulds. The main elevation to the south-east has two large, two-storey gables, extended forward in 1959 and 1961, flanking the single-storey central entrance porch, which has a Tudor arched doorway below a plaque inscribed B / 1910. Set back to the right is a single-storey gabled extension added in 1975. A single-storey former dairy, which has a hipped roof with louvred gablets, projects to the north of the service range. The service range terminates in an extension added in 1948, to which a further two-storey range was added at right-angles in 1997. The south-west side has a single-storey canted bay window. The inner courtyard has a gabled porch added in 1948, to the right of a gabled addition housing the stair, with a tall stair light.

INTERIOR: internally, the house has principal rooms set to either side of the entrance hall, each with stone fireplaces with Tudor-arched openings, with moulded skirting-boards, picture rails and shallow cornices. The doors throughout are four-panelled examples with moulded edges to the panels, set within narrow moulded door surrounds. The dog-leg stair has turned newel posts and plain stick balusters, and a moulded, wreathed mahogany handrail; it has been moved to a narrow extension just to the rear of its original position, but appears to be the original staircase. The room added to the north in 1975 has detailing to match the original house. The rear service range has been opened up to create a single large kitchen; immediately to the rear, the enclosed service stair rises to the first floor. The former dairy, which retains its original opposing entrance doors, has been converted to domestic use. The service range terminates in the former staff flat, which is now open to the large room in the 1997 extension. The ground floor of the staff flat retains its fireplace, and its modest decorative scheme of cornice and skirting boards. To the first floor, a wide landing above the hall is flanked by principal bedrooms, with various later partitions for the insertion of bathrooms. There are bedrooms and bathrooms ranged along the north side of a corridor running the length of the service range, and beyond the service stair, a bedroom and bathroom formerly part of the staff flat. There is a bedroom contained within the most recent extension.

HISTORY: the farmstead known as Manor Farm was built on a previously undeveloped site in 1910, and replaced the earlier Manor Farm which was situated some distance away within the village of Upper Slaughter. A substantial estate in Upper Slaughter, including a large house, Copse Hill, was purchased in 1873 by Henry Arthur Brassey, the son of the celebrated international railway and civil engineer Thomas Brassey. The estate included the Old Manor House, which had been used as a farmhouse since the late C18. After H A Brassey's death in 1891, Captain Robert Brassey took over estate, and built the new farmstead on the site of the current Manor Farm in 1910; the earlier farm buildings at the Old Manor House were demolished, and the house sold off in 1913. In the same year, the estate passed to Robert Brassey's cousin, Major E P Brassey.

Manor Farm House was built as an estate manager's house, and was situated to the south-east of the new model farm buildings; two pairs of cottages in similar style were constructed to the east and north-west of the farmstead, completing a group. The house was designed by the builders, Alfred Groves and Sons of Milton-under-Wychwood, with architectural advice from Mr M Gray, a London architect who was agent to the nearby Sherborne estate. A porch was added to the rear of the main range in 1948, and at the same time the hall was extended to the rear, into which the stair was moved. A staff flat was added in a two-storey extension to the rear of the service wing in the same year. The house was extended to the front of the main range by the addition of full-height, slightly projecting bays to either side of the porch, in 1959 and 1961 respectively. A further, single-storey extension was added to the right of the main range in 1975, and at the same time the service range to the rear was opened up to create a large kitchen. A two-storey extension adjoining the staff flat was added in 1997.

SOURCES:
A History of the County of Gloucester (Victoria County History): Volume 6, (1965) 135-7
Peters, JEC, Manor Farm, Upper Slaughter, Gloucestershire, in Journal of the Historic Farm Buildings Group, Volume 8, (1994) 1-4
Verey, D and Brooks, A, The Buildings of England, Gloucestershire I: The Cotswolds, (2002) 710

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION:
Manor Farm House, a former estate manager's house built in 1910, is designated at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
* Group value: the farm house is an integral part of a planned farmstead group, which also includes good farm buildings and two pairs of estate cottages, all of which are also listed at Grade II
* Architectural interest: the house is a good example of the continuation of Cotswold vernacular building into the C20; the later additions are made in the same style, and do not detract from its architectural interest
* Interior: the house retains most of its historic interior scheme, including a good staircase, panelled doors and fireplaces

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26531117

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.

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