Description

YARDLEY HASTINGS HIGH STREET
SP8657 (East side)
17/173 The Court Parlour
03/05/68 (Formerly listed as The Court
Parlour at Manor Farm)

GV I

Part of manor house. Late C14. Limestone rubble with ashlar dressings,
plain-tile roof, stone end stack. Rectangular, comprising complete service bay
of the Hastings Manor House built on standard medieval 3-cell plan; hall with
central open fireplace and parlour bay to east demolished C18 or earlier and
known only from excavations. The contemporary detached kitchen survives within
present manor house (q.v.) 3 storeys. The standing structure contains pantry on
ground floor with central pair of moulded door openings to cross passage, wall
cupboards and blocked fireplace. Buttery below with access by steep stone steps
from rear end of cross passage and ventilated by 4 wall vents rising to slit
openings above ground level. At first floor level, also accessed from a moulded
doorway in passage immediately adjacent to front door, a chamber interpreted as
a castellan's or bailiff's lodging, originally sub-divided into a living room
with wall fireplace and a sleeping area with higher window sills and garderobe
within thickness of rear wall. External door arches to cross passage partially
survive, moulded with early casement moulding to front, double-chamfered to
rear, 2-light windows, square-headed to pantry floor, pointed arched heads with
ogee tracery to dwelling floor above. All with stone relieving arches and wood
lintels, but glazing missing. Gardrobe to rear slightly corbelled has 2 small
quatrefoil lights. Side and off-set angle buttresses to west corners. Original
octagonal moulded stone stack to gable. Interior: floors of heavy close-spaced
oak joists, probably original, those of pantry floor now supported on re-used
cambered collars, probably from demolished hall. Stair to first floor of quarter
cut treads pegged to bearers. Similar stair within 1st floor partially preserved
and giving access to suspended attic, probably a later medieval alteration. Roof
structure is an outstanding example of C14 carpentry. Two bays, short principal
construction with cambered collar on arcade plates, chamfered arch braces, the
arch continued on the collar soffit, and heavy curved wind braces. Jowled crown
post to collar purlin and straight collar, and second tier of wind braces, the
collar purlin braced to a wall post at the gable end. Lower collar and short
principals are jowled to contain joints. The property was in the hands of the
Hastings family in the C14 until 1389, Lawrence de Hastings becoming Earl of
Pembroke in 1339. This former service bay has not been substantially altered or
modernised since the C14.
(Buildings of England: Northamptonshire: ;VCH: Northamptonshire: Vol
IV, pp296-7; C.A. Markham: Associated Archaeology Society Reports XXVII 401-7,
1903-4; S.G. Follett: Drawings in NMR (1908) used by M. Wood in The English
Medieval House: 1965 7if; N. Alcock and M. Barley: Medieval Roofs with Base
Crucks and Short Principals; Journal of Society of Antiquaries: 52, Pt.1, 1972,
132f; C.T.P. Woodfield: The Larger Medieval Houses of Northamptonshire:
Northamptonshire Archaeology 16, 1981, 192-5)

Listing NGR: SP8661457091

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17527191

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

• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)