Description

TL 5663
15/163
1.12.1951

SWAFFHAM PRIOR
HIGH STREET
(West Side)
No 80 Baldwin Manor
(formerly listed as Baldwin Manor)

II*

Manor house, c1500 extended by one bay to the South in early-mid
C16 and again in C17 by the addition of a kitchen wing at the
rear. The parlour of the original house was demolished before
1815. Timber-framing, exposed, on a brick plinth, with plain
tiled roof, hipped to the South West. The original stack at the
North East gable end would have been internal. It is of red
brick, with some clunch. In plan the house was of a single
range of four or five bays which have now been reduced to
three. The early-mid C16 addition is of one bay. Two storeys.
The first floor is jettied and the jetty beam, which has carved
leaf ornament, is carried on joists laid flat, shaped jetty
brackets, and embattled pilasters now mostly mutilated. The two
brackets flanking the doorway to the cross-passage are carved
with devices of the Baldwin family, as are the spandrels to the
four-centred arch to the doorway. The fenestration is all
later, probably late C17 or early C18, with cross-frame
casements at ground floor, and much original glass. However at
first floor the original sills to the c1500 windows are
preserved. In the rear wall there are two C16 windows one of
four ogee lights with pierced trefoil tracery to heads, and
another of seven lights with hollow moulded mullions. The
early-mid C16 addition is similar to the original house. It is
timber-framed and jettied at first floor. It also has a moulded
jetty beam and joists carried on shaped brackets with embattled
pilasters, now mutilated. The jetty plate, however, is
embattled. There is curved or cranked downward bracing from the
posts to the jetty beam. The C17 kitchen bay adjoins this bay
at the rear. Timber-framed and plain tiled with a large stack
of red brick at the junction with the principal range. One
storey and attic. Inside. Apart from the loss of the parlour,
the plan of the original house remains intact. The hall is in
two bays with a cross-passage at the low end. The screens wall
still survives but a staircase has been inserted into the
cross-passage. The original mortices for a partition wall
between the buttery and pantry are visible in the service bay.
In the hall, the ceiling is quartered and has double ogee
moulding to the main beams, and to the principal posts. The
cambered bressummer over the inglenook hearth has a rose boss at
the centre and foliate ornament on either side. A doorway to
the right of the hearth possibly led to a staircase to the
chamber over the hall. This doorway has a four centred arch in
a square head with spandrels carved with foliate ornament, part
mutilated. At first floor, the chamber over the hall has
cambered and chamfered tie-beams with arch bracing. There are
two original windows in this room retaining some of their
original diamond mullions. The crown-post roof is intact and
has bracing only to the collar purlin. There is no smoke
blackening. The early-mid C16 addition has stop chamfered main
beams. On a former moated site and known to have been
associated with the Baldwin family in C13. The house is
particularly noteworthy for its mouldings connected with the
heraldic devices of the Baldwin family.

R.C.H.M. (North East Cambs.), 121, mon (5)
Pevsner: Buildings of England, p468

Listing NGR: TL5648963912

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17543621

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

• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)