Listed Building: Manor House (5/156)

Manor House. C16 and late C17 with C20 extensions. Limestone ashlar with stone slate roof. L-plan. Symmetrical south front of c.1680 is of 2 storeys with a 3-bay centre and 2-bay projections to left and right. Central doorway with open segmental pediment and C20 glazed door. All windows are of 2 lights with stone mullions and transoms. Attic dormers have wooden casements and hipped roofs. East part incorporates a late C16 wing which projects north and has stone mullioned windows of 3- and 4-lights with square hoods. It is entered through a porch dated 1931, probably the time when the north side of the house was re-fenestrated. Interior: Entrance hall is the former kitchen and has an open fireplace with a segmental stone arch and oven with an iron door leading from a doorway south of this hall is a late C16 well staircase with turned balusters and newel posts with elongated acorn finials. In the south section of the house is a large oblong hall with a stone fireplace opposite the entrance. This is re-used late C16 work and has a 4-centred arch framed by fluted Corinthian columns and a frieze of stylised leaves. Above it are the arms of the Cresswell family (Lords of the Manor in the C17), carved in stone and not in situ. At the east end of this hall are late C17 5-panel double doors leading to a room with a fireplace of the same date with a wood bolection surround and bolection panelled overmantel. To the west of the hall is a room with re-used late C16 panelling and a stone fireplace of the same date with a 4-centred arch. A bedroom on the first floor has a late C17 fireplace with bolection panelled overmantel framing a painting on canvas of a landscape with the goddess Diana. To the west is a C20 extension of limestone rubble with a stone slate roof of two storeys with wooden casement windows. The garden south of the house forms a small forecourt enclosed by low stone walls with four gateways, each with plain stone piers and ball finials. (Great Purston Manor, (Anon); Northamptonshire Notes and Queries, January 1926, New Series No.1, Vol.6, p.1).

Record last edited

Sep 28 2020 2:37PM