Building record 880/2/0 - The Manor House

<1> Department of the Environment, 1971-2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, Vol. 3, p. 54 (Report). SCH1934.

The Manor House, High Street. Dated 1585 on gable bressumer. Timber-framed and rendered with slate roof. The gable has decorative timber- framing with ogees, quarter-circles and fleurs de lys, with a central coat of arms. The inscription to the moulded bressumer reads "Ralph Done Esquyer, the lorde of this place, was an eade to this buldying in ever case. John Wytter 1586". A further beam reads "Feneys quoth Jhon Newsome hathe kept hys promes just, in buldying of thys house in August, anno 1585". Rear extensive 19th century additions including cheeseroom. Interior: Small framing to ground and first floor walls with some wattle and daub infill. Chamfered and end-stopped ceiling beams to ground floor rooms and Queen post trusses to first floor. The house was built for Ralph Done of Flaxyards, Tarporley. Full architectural description sources (1) and (2)

<2> Department for the Environment, Various, Provisional List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 21/23, 1965 (Report). SCH2744.

<3> Ormerod, G., 1882, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester (Book). SCH1389.

<4> Various, Various, Oral communication to the HER, Turner R C, 1985 (Oral Communication). SCH2330.

Has a remarkable set of five stone cheese presses of different sizes in a rear room.

<5> Wardell Armstrong (Stoke-on-Trent), 2023, The Manor House, High Street, Tarporley, Cheshire: Heritage Appraisal, R4769 (Client Report). SCH9604.

The building of The Manor House is attributed to Ralph Done who is commemorated on the inscription to the east gable of the north frontage. The ornamental shield to the centre of the decorated gable also pays reference to Ralph Done including the initial ‘R D’ to the top left corner. The initials ‘W D’ are also included to the top right corner commemorating William Davenport, Ralph Done’s father-inlaw. The shield is divided into four quarters with each quarter including details of the coat of arms of the Done, Davenport, Cholmondeley and Wilbraham families. The inscription also includes reference to ‘John Wytter’. Wytter or Witter, was related to the Witter Family who had been associated with Tarporley since the late 15th century. Reference to John Witter in 1578 notes him as a freeholder of Tarporley ‘ who was to furnish a coat of plated armour’ after being called by Queen Elizabeth I. It is considered likely that John Wytter lived at The Manor House following its construction in 1586. The reference to ‘Jhon Newsome’ may refer to the builder of the property.

The Manor House is first depicted in detail on the 1838 Tithe Survey for Tarporley. The house is shown with detached outbuilding ranges to the west and north; these two ranges accord with the position of the extant west range, which is shown to be much longer than the extant building, and the two-storey, compact brick building to the north of the Site. The main house is shown to have an irregular footprint with an additional outbuilding range shown attached to the west. The accompanying Tithe apportionment records Henry Brookes as the occupier and the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral of Christ and Blessed Virgin Mary, Chester as the owners. The associated plots of land are referenced as being in arable, pasture and meadow use.

The Manor House presents as a complex, multi-phase building. The plan form is entirely consistent with a hall house (floored or unfloored from the outset) with a central hall and cross-passage at the low end (east wing) with two doorways giving access to two service rooms divided by a closed partition and the high end seemingly a single open parlour. The diagnostic evidence supports the date of origin (1585/6) for the building recorded on the exterior of the east cross-wing, although there is some evidence to indicate that the west cross-wing may be earlier. Although superficially similar, within the west cross-wing the ground floor ceiling bears hallmarks reminiscent of medieval flat-section framing, the tie-beams on the rear south wall clearly held large inner braces with four pegs, and the roof includes curved wind-braces which together suggest a slightly differing date, perhaps around the middle of the 16th century. By contrast, the hall and east cross-wing bear features which appear to indicate contemporaneity with each other such as the pattern of external wall-framing and similarity in ceiling joisting but with some affinities to the west cross-wing that could indicate a phase of rebuilding only a short time after the original construction. The central trusses of the hall are entirely typical of the forms developing throughout the 16th century and the use of through purlins (an alternative to butt purlins) and the presence of straight wind braces and cambered tie-beams when taken with diagnostic detailing elsewhere corresponds well with the elaborate framing of the east gable and date of 1586. The existing fireplaces and staircases are later insertions. Substantial re-ordering in the central hall which may have originally housed an inglenook fireplace. The position of the original staircase is unconfirmed but could have been the east cross wing. Extensions to the at the eastern and western cross wings appear, from the brickwork, likely of an 18th century date. Map regression reveals further extensions were added in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Former outbuildings have been added and subsequently removed, notably to the west, and that the extant outbuildings have been altered with the linear range to the east formerly being part of a larger, longer range. Evidence of the earlier ranges to the west may been by the remains of a red quarry tile floor finish to the south-west corner of the house and also possibly the areas of external disturbance around the ground floor window to the kitchen in the west elevation. The intensity and concentration of the buildings is indicative of the operation of the house as a farm which is detailed within historic documentary sources. It is evident that that the status of the building as a manor house therefore altered at point during its occupation.

<6> Wardell Armstrong, 2023, The Manor House, High Street, Tarporley: Historic Building Monitoring and Recording, R4770 (Client Report). SCH9605.

Following the production of a heritage assessment (source 5), monitoring was undertaken in 2023 of building works during internal and external renovations at The Manor House, including stripping of the external render which allowed observation of the underlying timber-framing. Although superficially similar in the patterns of timber-framing, the three structures (hall, east-cross wing and west-cross wing) are structurally distinct. Similarities include the use of small panelling in the external framing, the use of through-purlin roof structures with queen or raking struts and wind braces. However, differences in detail may suggest sequential rebuilding, either due to rapid changes in fashions or more likely through necessity brought about by fire.

Although the west cross-wing utilises flat-section common joists reminiscent of the medieval form, when taken with other features, a date in the second half of the 16th century is likely. In contrast, both the east cross-wing and the hall range are entirely typical of the forms developing throughout the 16th century. The hall range is clearly a distinct phase and the discovery of the original entrance to the west and the reordering that appears to have seen the removal of a much larger principal chimneystack than exists today provides further clues. The original doorway would then have opened against the flank of the chimneystack in a lobby-entry arrangement, consistent with a later 16th or early 17th century date.

The application of external render had trapped moisture and caused the decay of much of the timber frame. However, the removal of the external render has now revealed that the majority of the decorative timber-framing of the east cross-wing survives complete with not only the distinctive sinuous and quadrant bracing but also the incorporation of splat balusters within the external framing; a tradition not common anywhere else within the country, although examples are known throughout Cheshire in particular.