Description

GREAT CRESSINGHAM PRIORY ROAD TF 80 SE (north-west side) 10/14 Manor House (formerly 9:7:51 lisLed as Priory)

- I

Former manor house and farmhouse. Bears moulded brick monograms of John and Elizabeth Jenny who acquired the property in 1542. Later C16 addition to rear. Brick with terracotta dressings and plain tile roofs to principal block. Addition consists of a timber frame replaced with brick to ground floor. Black and red pantile roof. One block of former courtyard plan survives in south east corner of a rectangular moated site. Later addition forms L plan. Lower part of front wall of a block adjacent to surviving block is standing. Evidence of other buildings consists of fragmentary foundations. Principal block. 2 storeys with attic. Facade articulated with 3 polygonal turrets - the outer ones clasping the angles, the central one forming a chimney stack. 3 restored C19 mullion and transom windows and a restored 2-leaf door with a 3-light rectangular fanlight. Ground floor openings beneath original terracotta rectangular hood moulds. 3 original moulded single light arched windows to ground floor of west turret. East side of eastern turret with 2 single-light arched windows. First floor decorated with terracotta blind tracery in a distinctly Medieval reticulated motif. Jenny monogram and crest stamped onto terracotta panels within the tracery. Highly elaborate horizontal frieze forming base to the tracery consisting of inverted cusped interlaced arcading with leaf motifs. Central turret is reduced to a plain rectangular block which in turn carries a pair of octagonal chimney shafts. Lateral turrets truncated just above eaves level. Rear wall of 2 bays with 3 original 2-light windows 2 of which have median transoms and hollowed-out spandrels to arched heads. One blocked window and one smaller window above doorway. 4-centred doorway of 2 moulded orders. Rectangular hood moulds to all openings. Traces of a stucco pattern of diagonally set squares and cusped panels imitating flushwork. Terracotta frieze identical to main facade and an elaborate plinth with terracotta blind tracery. Half of rear facade now forms interior wall of addition; it retains 2 original windows (one probably re-set because mouldings have been reversed), a 4-centred doorway, restored stucco flushwork and continuation of frieze and plinth. Gable-ends heavily repaired with added external stack to east. Connecting wall to west of principal block contains a limestone 4-centred carriage entrance in Perpendicular style with shafts and blind-traceried spandrels. Truncated turret to west of archway matches main block turrets. Remains of a similar turret to western extremity of wall. Wall largely rebuilt retaining, however, some original sections with a black header chevron pattern. C19 crenellated parapets and modern lean-to sheds to rear. Rear block of lobby entrance type plan with 2 storeys and attic. Ground floor brickwork with traces of diaper pattern and some areas rebuilt. Simple pargetted pattern of inverted semi- circles with arrowheads beneath eaves on eastern side. C20 fenestration in sympathetic style with metal casements and leaded glazing. West facade with doorway opposite off-centre axial. stack. 4 flat-roofed dormers. Returned brick gable-end with datestone in gable-end reading 1674 with initials E.O.I. (Probably the correct date for the reconstruction of the gable-end). Modern French windows with a plain doorcase. Interior. Main block retains 2 arched fireplaces to central turret stack. The western turret was converted into a dovecote - the nesting boxes roughly fashioned out of re-used terracotta mouldings. C20 roof. Rear block with roll-moulded beams to both floors. First floor ceilings with 3 roll-moulded bridging joists to each bay. Roof appears to be later, possibly of 1674, with collars and butt-purlins. Stencilling on some ground floor beams in northernmost room. Re-positioned carved bracket of interest with a grotesque head to one side and a flower motif to the other.

Listing NGR: TF8521402011

External Links

• Wikidata Q17535496

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Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)