Description

TQ 53 NW SPELDHURST SPELDHURST ROAD, LANGTON GREEN

7/588 Manor Cottage
25.10.73
II*

Former farmhouse. Late medieval, probably mid/late C15, with late C16/early
C17 improvements, refurbished and modernised in the mid C20. Timber-framed.
External walls at ground floor level underbuilt with C20 Flemish bond red
brick with dentil cornice, framing above is hung with peg-tile. Main brick
stack on coursed sandstone base and staggered brick chimneyshaft. Peg-tile
roof.

Plan and Development: 3-room plan house facing west. Axial stack between
larger central room and right (south) room serves back-to-back fireplaces.
Left end room has C19 or C20 end stack and contains the C20 staircase.
Various C19 and C20 extensions to rear, mostly service rooms with kitchen rear
left with a disused stack but also a sitting room rear right.

Main block contains the extensive remains of a late medieval open hall house.
This had a 3-room-and-through-passage plan with storeyed ends either side of
the central hall with was open to the roof and heated by an open hearth fire.
Service end at the right (southern) end was originally divided into two by
central axial partition (probably buttery, dairy, pantry and the like).
Passage this end in the hall. Principal bedchamber or solar over the left end
inner room.

Major late C16/early C17 modernisation. Hall was floored over and, it seems,
the house was turned round. An axial stack serving back-to-back fireplaces
was inserted into the passage with lobby entrance in front of it. Service
partition was removed and this end became the parlour. No obvious evidence
that the hall was used as a kitchen. Former inner room relegated to service
use.

2 storeys with attic rooms in the roofspace and various single and 2-storey
additions to rear.

Exterior: Is largely the result of the C20 modernisation. Regular but not
symmetrical 4-window front of C20 casements with diamond panes of leaded
glass. Original front doorway and probably later lobby entrance doorway was
right of centre but now blocked by a window. Present main doorway into rear
extensions. Tall and steeply-pitched roof is hipped to left and gable-ended
to right. Similar windows around the other sides including the extensions.

Interior: Main block contains the extensive remains of the late medieval hall
house. Large-framed walls are exposed at first floor level and, unusually,
survive down to the sill on the rear wall; timbers of large scantling with
curving tension braces. Both end rooms have large axial joists and empty
mortises in the central joist of the right room testify to its original use as
2 service rooms. Much of the upper (left) end crosswall has been removed at
ground floor level but there still remains here the moulded dais beam with
brattished crest. Late medieval 4-bay roof. Hall with open truss with closed
trusses each end. All 3 trusses, including the closed trusses, with massive
arch braces to the tie beam (removed from the open truss). Crown post
superstructure. Hall open truss has square-section crown post with chamfered
and step-stopped edges, chamfered cap and base. Common rafter A-frame trusses
of large scantling with lap-jointed collars. Hall floored in late C16/early
C17 and the axial beam and joists are chamfered with step stops. Contemporary
stack and hall has a good large sandstone fireplace with a chamfered oak
lintel. The fireplace behind it must have been rebuilt if there was one here
in the late C16/early C17.

Manor Cottage is an interesting well-preserved late medieval hall house with
good late C16/early C17 improvements.

Listing NGR: TQ5445939576

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17547598

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

• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)