Birtsmorton Court

Description

Moated manor house. Late C16 with C14 remains, C18 and C19 alterations and C20 additions. Stone, brick and timber-framing with tile roofs. Built around a courtyard. The east, entrance, facade is mostly early C20 re-using earlier brick and timber and has an earlier stone base. It is of two storeys with attic and is framed in square panels. It has a three-bay centre with a gabled dormer to the central bay, and a cross-wing to each side with diagonal bracing to the gable. A Tudor-arched doorway to the right of the second bay is approached by a C20 bridge over the moat. Chimney at left, between central first and second bays, and at left of right-hand wing. To the right is a gable of a C17 timber-framed range on an older stone base. This is framed in square panels and jettied. Its north wall has two projecting stone chimney stacks with brick caps. Adjoin- ing to the west is a C14 stone gateway with a segmental arch moulded in two orders with added brick battlements and a C19 bridge. The courtyard is entered from this gateway. Ahead, on the south side, is the hall which has some exposed timber-framing. Above the pointed timber doorway is a window lighting the screens gallery. To the right is a C17 timber window of five lights with two transoms. To the left of the doorway is a range of three bays and two storeys in stone, on the site of the service wing. This has 2-light mullioned windows. The south wall of the hall, facing the moat, has a two-storey gabled timber-framed bay window on each side of a stone stack with brick shafts. Adjoining to the left (west) are two bays of the end wall of a C18 brick building which closes the west side of the courtyard. This is partly a casing of the C16 timber-framed solar wing. Interior: inserted floor removed from hall in C20. The screens gallery is supported on round timber posts. The front incorporates three large plaster panels with late C16 shields of arms. The plaster ceiling of the hall has moulded ribs, roses, and fleur de lis ornament. Large wall-posts are set in front of the close-studded high end wall. The south room of the west, or solar, wing, is lined with late C16 oak panelling and has a decorated plaster ceiling. The panelling is divided by Corinthian pilasters and has a frieze with the painted shields of arms of the neighbouring gentry. A carved overmantel has three round-headed panels with painted shields of arms. On the first floor is a fragment of wall painting of a similar date. (Listed Building Report)

An eminently picturesque house placed in a wide moat. The architectural history is far from clear but the archway on the north side is clearly 14th century and the range to the east has a stone base too and may be as old. The south range contains the hall, the south face of the exterior being especially picturesque. It contains work of the 15th and 16th centuries. (PastScape ref. Pevsner 1968)