SNN109418 - Historic Building Recording and Watching Brief: The Manor House, The Green, Culworth, Northamptonshire, 2012

Between September and December 2012 historic building recording and a building watching brief was carried out at The Manor House, The Green, Culworth, Northamptonshire as a condition of Listed Building Consent for development involving buildings on the site. The house is a Grade II listed stone building of two storeys, attics and cellars under tiled roofs. Built by the Danvers family who held the manor from 1437 until 1776, the Manor House now comprises three of the four ranges of buildings around a central courtyard. The east range has been subdivided into two cottages. The earliest surviving part of the house is the south range, which dates from c.1600. It was extended in the early 17th century by the addition of two wings to the west of the south range, and the final phase occurred in the late 19th century when the still open northern side of the courtyard was constructed. The building fell into decay after the last of the Danvers family died in 1794, and the interior was stripped of its oak fittings, fireplaces etc before 1830. The building was restored in the 1920s-40s and the present building works have revealed an extensive array of alterations in modern building materials, most particularly concrete. This report also questions the previous interpretations of the buildings history, with the suggestion that the present south range did not in fact house the hall.