More information : (TQ 90083313) Finchden Manor (NAT) (1)
1715 APPLEDORE ROAD
(North East Side)
Finchden Manor
TQ 93 SW 6/140 8.5.50.
II* GV
A large C16 timber-framed house with moderm additions at the north
west end. Sir Thomas More, when Lord Chancellor of England, was
reported to have visited the house. In the C19 it was occupied as a
Benedictine Priory but it is now a school. The lower half of the
ground floor of the south west front facing the garden is of red
brick and grey headers. Above it is plastered and painted black and
white in imitation of timbering. 3 storeys, having 3 projecting
gables with bressumers and one dormer and 6 bay windows below the
gables. 2 storey projecting porch with gable, its 1st floor coved.
To the north west of the porch are 2 further bays without gables,
one of them coved similarly to the porch. One of these bays has the
date 1658 on it, which probably refers to an alteration. Casement
windows. The garden elevation is mainly brick fronted. The roof has
a massive brick chimney stack and hipped gables, 2 of which have
fretted bargeboards. The right side gable has a bressumer with
strapwork designs and some fine C17 grotesque brackets. Lion head
waterspouts, and rain water heads. The central portion has 3 hipped
gables with 4 female grotesque brackets. The left side gable has
exposed close-studded timbering. The interior has a C17 staircase
with balusters. (2)
Finchden Manor has been much added to and altered. The main
front to the road is timber-framed, with overhanging gables and a
two-storeyed porch. 17th century geometrical decoration on the porch,
and another bit to the left with a date 1658. Good brick stables
north east of the house c.1670. The main part has a hipped roof on a
cornice with big shaped brackets. English bonding. (3)
|