SNN114430 - Historic building recording (Level 3) at Manor House Museum, Kettering GLaM Project, Northamptonshire, June 2021

MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) was commissioned by Faithful + Gould, on behalf of North Northamptonshire Council, to undertake a programme of historic building recording (Level 3) at Manor House Museum, Kettering, Northamptonshire. This was required prior to works being undertaken on the building which will comprise alterations as part of the Kettering GLaM Project (Gallery, Library and Museum). The house (now museum) comprises several clear phases of development that can be best understood by studying the building’s historic fabric. The main range is the oldest part of the building and comprises the original manor house, now much reduced in size but once part of the Dukes of Montagu, and later the Dukes of Buccleuchs, estates in the area. Cartographic sources indicate the original building was once much larger than the current limits, and it is likely much has been demolished. The rear range is a separate phase, but only slightly different date to the main range, perhaps by 50 years or so. In the early 19th century a small northern extension was added which created the main entrance seen today. After its conversion to a museum in the 1980s, a large stone, cast-iron, timber and glass extension wrapped around the back of the house to create larger exhibition spaces.