Description

GREAT BOOKHAM COBHAM ROAD
TQ/15/NW (east side)
2/75

7.9.51 Slyfield Manor, with attached
garden walls (formerly listed
as Slyfield House, together with
Slyfield Farm)

GV I

Manor house, now house. C16 or earlier, remodelled and clad in brick in early
C17; reduced in C18; altered. Red hand-made brick in 1+1 garden wall bond, with
some tiles, red tile roof. Formerly part of an interlinked complex which included
the wing now detached and known as Slyfield Farmhouse (q.v.); now L-plan, the
main range on an east-west axis facing south, with coupled wings to the rear of
the west end. Two storeys; the south facade, now 1+7 bays (part of the former
west range remaining as a screen wall), has a plinth with moulded coping of
brick with tile fillets, brick pilasters (mostly Ionic, with pronounced entasis,
badges half-way up, and concave capitals with terracotta volutes), and prominent
boarded eaves on carved wooden brackets. The wide left end (probably formerly
the centre) has a moulded string course and deep moulded cornice, pilasters
framing a wooden transomed 8-light window on each floor, the upper with a
moulded segmental head breaking through the cornice, and a shaped gable with a
rectangular panel containing a diamond, and a pediment above. To the right the
the 1st bay of the main range has a small sashed window at ground floor and a
blocked window above, the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th bays have 16-pane sashes
(except for French windows at ground floor of the 3rd), the 4th and 7th bays
each have a cornice at ground floor and a sill above (as if for windows) and
there is a similar cornice in the 5th bay. The roof has a panelled chimney to
the 1st bay, and a gable chimney to the right. The rear has double brick bands
(the upper dentilled) which step over a doorway in the re-entrant of the wing, a
doorway in the main range with a Sun fire plaque over it and a small window
above with a banded wooden surround, and various other windows including a
wooden mullioned stairlight with 2 transoms in the angle of the wing. Interior:
the entrance hall in the wing has a wooden screen on the left side with Tudor-
arched doorways and a splat balustrade above, and a 4-centred wooden archway
with carved pilasters and spandrels, and pendent "keystone", leading to a fine
early C17 open-well staircase which has rusticated newels with square urn-finials,
geometrical open-work panels instead of balusters, and a matching dado; the
parlour has muntin-and-rail panelling with Ionic pilasters, a moulded Tudor-
arched fireplace of Sussex marble, with a shield in the overmantel, and a
moulded plaster ceiling with a figure of plenty in the centre; the great chamber
above has similar but simpler panelling and fireplace, and a coved ceiling of
moulded plaster decorated with strap-work, swags, cherubs, birds, etc.; the
chambers of the main range also have muntin-and-rail panelling and fine C17
moulded plaster panelled ceilings, each with a central oval, that over the
drawing room containing a female figure of peace (holding an olive branch like a
great quill pen), and the other containing a cherub. The back staircase (at the
east end) has newels like those of the main staircase; the drawing room has C18
panelling. The garden wall, attached at right-angles to the east end of the front,
approx. 40 metres long and 4 metres high, has a saw-tooth band and a cornice,
and a round-headed doorway near the north end and another in the centre with a
pilastered architrave. Reference: J.H.Harvey & G.Slyfield Slyfield Manor and
Family (1953).

Listing NGR: TQ1335857878

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17527608

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

• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)