SNN116680 - HISTORIC BUILDING RECORD ON OUTBUILDINGS AT THORPE MANOR, THORPE MANDEVILLE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. NGR SP 53345 44990

This Historic Building Recording project was undertaken at Thorpe Manor on a range of curtilage listed ancillary buildings ahead of their demolition or refurbishment. The buildings are located within a service yard to the north east of the manor house, and are depicted on historic maps from the mid-19th century onwards. The study buildings included store rooms, stables and greenhouses, all of which were formerly associated with the day-to-day operations of the manor house. The earliest structures, buildings C, H and I, were those ranged around the eastern and southern walls of the courtyard. These buildings, or parts of these buildings, are all present on 19th century maps of the area. Building C appears to have originated as an open sided shelter shed or similar structure, which has been subject to later infilling and adaptation. A brick-built trough present in one room is indicative of one former function of the building, while a concrete base and associated electrical fittings in another room is indicative of a later function as a generator room. Buildings H and I appear to have served as storage rooms or workshops. Building I originated as a small rectangular structure, before being extended to the west in the 20th century to incorporate a potting shed. Building F dates to the late 19th century and was a stable; the building retains elements of its former function, including stalls with troughs and central floor drains. The greenhouses ranged in date from the mid-19th to early to mid-20th century in date. The ironwork in greenhouses A and E is marked as the product of W.M. Wood & Son, Taplow, Bucks. From the late 19th century onwards W.M. Wood & Son manufactured horticultural buildings and undertook garden design and landscaping from the late 19th to 20th century. Initially based in London, the company moved to Buckinghamshire in 1924, providing the earliest possible date for the two of the greenhouses at Thorpe Manor, both of which are marked with the company’s Buckinghamshire location