More information : [ST 2630 3942] Gurney Street Farm on remains of [TI]
GRANGE [GT]
[ST 2629 3942] Chapel [GT] (1)
Gurney Street Farm (15th-17th cent. (2) has a late 16th cent. front
with, at the rear, a pre-Reformation range which includes a small
chapel (3). The whole is now converted into flats. (2,3)
The house, now known as Gurney Manor, is of considerable
architectural interest. Its stuccoed exterior has been neglected and the oratory is now used as a store.
No evidence can be found to substantiate its having been a grange.
See GPs AO/64/260/7 & 8. (4 -5)
The Manor Grade I
Manor house, attached chapel wing, detached kitchen block to rear connected by a covered walk; now flats; for Walter Mitchell. C15; C16, and C17 minor additions, some C19 alterations; some C20 internal division. Random rubble, rendered, triple Roman tile roofs, hipped to West of hall range, coped verges with bases for finials, brick stacks, further projecting rubble stack to rear with brick cap, crenellated octagonal dressed stone stack. Cross passage house with an open hall, later floored, later wings at right angles to East and West ends, attached chapel wing to rear kitchen with first floor access to the chapel wing. Irregular frontage of 2 storeys, 1:1:1:1:1 bays, two 3 and 4-light moulded stone mullioned windows; left bay in a projecting gabled wing, in addition to windows 3 narrow slits to frontage, inner return with a door opening in a chamfered stone 4-centred arch surround. Corresponding door opening to right wing, front facing gable blank, 4-light mullioned window to first floor of inner return. Principal door opening in a gabled porch, third bay from left, moulded 4-centred arch outer door opening, stopped label, blank shields to the spandrels, 2-light window to first floor, stopped label; similar inner door opening, C19 door. Returns in a similar style; chapel wing with a large 5-light mullioned window in ground floor of West gable wall, corresponding 4-light window to first floor, East wall with a 3-light window, each light with a cusped head, further blocked mullioned and transomed windows to South wall. The upper floor of the chapel wing is connected to the upper floor of the kitchen by a short elevated passageway supported to each side of ground floor on a narrow 4-centred archway; 2-light mullioned and transomed window to first floor of West end of kitchen wing, each light with a cusped head, some iron stanchions remaining. A covered walk joins the rear of the cross passage to the kitchen wing, roof supported on jointed crucks fwith a cambered collar. The roofs to the East cross wing of the house, the chapel wing and the kitchen wing are of cruck construction, some archbracing. Many other noteworthy features are to be found inside; remains of a C17 strapwork plaster ceiling to first floor of chapel; also in the chapel a piscina; fireplace in massive stone surround with a chamfered 4-centred arch opening to East ground floor room of house. (VAG Report, unpublished SRO, 1982; VCH forthcoming). (6)
ST 262 396. C 15 date, building with small chapel in the west wall. A detached kitchen enclosing a courtyard at rear is largely intact. Beside the kitchen door is a serving hatch which is an extremely rare survival. (7)
The house has now been converted back into one building and is now let out by the Landmark Trust. (8-9) |