Description

SP52SE CHESTERTON MANOR FARM LANE
(South side)
Great Chesterton

6/40 Manor Farm House

GV II*

Manor house. Early C12 and C16/C17, remodelled late C18. Limestone rubble with
wooden lintels; Stonesfield-slate and Welsh-slate roof with brick stacks. L-plan
with attached range. 2 storeys plus attics and one storey plus attic. Regular
5-window front of main range has a central dooorway and renewed sashes (12-pane
at ground floor and 9-pane above) and has a stone band above first-floor
windows; stone-slate roof has 3 gabled roof dormers with brick gable stacks.
Lean-to addition against right gable wall. Short rear wing, returning on left,
is probably C16/C17 and originally extended beyond the present front; a
single-storey kitchen bay to rear of it is C18. Large range linked to rear of
right end of main range, and parallel with it, is C12 with a C17 roof; it has 2
original small window openings in the right end (both with later lintels) and an
original round-headed entrance, converted to a window and now contained within
the linking range. The remains of a window in the left gable is probably
medieval. C20 gable and steps to rear. To rear of this range is a timber-framed
privy, with brick infill, probably early C18. Interior: rear wing and left end
of house have intersecting chamfered beams and an early partition with lattice
panels; front windows have panelled shutters; pine panelling in lean-to room.
Linking range has some medieval stonework and an early beam which may have
formed part of a porch to the C12 range. Lower storey of C12 range is the
barrel-vaulted undercroft to a first-floor hall or chamber; the round-arched
splays to the end windows and the groined vault over the original doorway
survive, but the undercroft is now subdivided by a later, though possibly
medieval, crosswall, and there are inserted doorways to right and in the left
gable wall plus an inserted window to rear. Upper floor is now contained within
the 6-bay butt-purlin roof which has through tenons and had 2 collars (the lower
collars are now removed). The building had become a detached outbuilding until
late C20 when it was linked to the house, converted, and recognized as one of
the earliest known examples of the first-floor hall or chamber, and evidence for
a contemporary encircling moat was found.
(Dr. J. Blair, Medieval Archaeology, Vol.28, (1984), pp.235-6; V.C.H.:
0xfordshire, Vol.VI, p.93).

Listing NGR: SP5631621367

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17548416

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

• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014