Owlpen Manor Owlpen, England

Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

ST 79 NE and OWLPEN OWLPEN VILLAGE ST 89 NW

5/355 Owlpen Manor (previously listed as Manor House) 23.6.52

GV I

Manor house. C15 with mid C16 hall. West wing dated 1616 for T.D. (Thomas Daunt); internal remodelling in east wing 1719-1722. Restored by Norman Jewson 1925-26. Random rubble and dressed limestone, partly roughcast rendered; ashlar and artificial stone rebuilt chimneys; stone slate roof. Two-storey with attic; accumulation results in L-plan. South front: 3 gables of different dates. Projecting end of C15 east wing to right, altered in early C18 with 2-window 18-pane sash fenestration having bolection moulded architraves. Side parapets to gable are a C18 addition. Blocked attic window. Full central gable with moulded coping and finial has recessed cavetto mullioned fenestration, off- centre 6-light to ground floor, central upper floor 4-light flanked by 2 single-light casements and carved arms panel above; 2-light to attic, all casements with hoodmoulds and leaded lights. This gable roughcast rendered. Projecting forward to left is early C17 addition, moulded coping to parapet gable having finials. Three- storey canted bay window with mullioned casements reduces in width above upper floor window, narrower attic part having 3-light front face; 4-light to floors below; crenellated parapet. Date panel below attic window 'TD 1616'. Ridge-mounted chimney at junction with hall has cluster of 5 diagonal-set shafts with moulded caps. East side: roughcast rendered except for return from front to left and projecting chimney stack with rectangular shaft. Full gable of short cross wing to right. Scattered timber casement fenestration with scalloped jamb decoration; one 3-light above doorway has heavy chamfered timber frame; ground floor cross window to left. Two gabled attic dormers with leaded casements. West end: 2 parapet gables with finials to 1616 wing, fenestration arranged in line with gables to upper floor and attic, 3-light to upper floor, 2-light to attic; one off-centre 3-light to ground floor. Continuous dripmoulds. Projecting stone rainwater chutes between gables. Interior: remarkable for number and range of period features, this mainly due to the building's lowly status in Cl9. Hall has timber beamed compartment ceiling, moulded Tudor arched fireplace and on north wall painted coat-of-arms of Daunt quartering Ollepen. Early C17 oak panelling in parlour to west and newel staircase, this leading to solar in C17 wing and, through one of a pair of timber Tudor arched doorways with early fittings, into the Great Chamber above the hall. Late C17 and very rare painted cloth hangings cover all the walls in this room - these having been moved from a room in the east wing and unfortunately trimmed. Late C16 Tudor arched fireplace appears to have a later classical entablature. East wing parlour - entered through round arched classical doorway from hall with fluted Ionic pedestal-mounted pilasters - has early C18 bolection-moulded fireplace and contemporary panelling. Staircase in this wing by Norman Jewson. Bedroom (formerly containing cloth hangings) now with C20 Queen Anne style panelling. Some original roof trusses survive in east wing, arched braced with cambered collars, wind bracing removed. Roof over hall appears reconstructed, supporting the theory that this was mid C16 rebuilding of original hall, possibly contemporary with east wing; some surviving ogee windbracing. Little alteration occurring here until building's rescue from dilapidated state by Norman Jewson, Ernest Gimson's assistant from Sapperton. Inscribed stone on east wing records: 'This house, the greater part of which had not been inhabited for many years and had fallen into decay, was restored by Norman Jewson 1925-26'. A most important intact survival, situated in yew-planted gardens, with gate piers to south (q.v.), Court House to west (q.v.), barn to east (q.v.) and corn mill to south east (q.v.). (Several articles in C