The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Manor house
Manor house
Sutton Courtenay is a picturesque village in the NE of Berkshire, alongside the river Thames and some 2 miles S of Abingdon. The village is a long one, extending over a series of minor roads that run S from the river towards Didcot. The oldest parts of the village, including the parish church, the manor house and Norman Hall, and the 13thc rectory house, now known as the Abbey, are grouped at the N end, near the river. Norman Hall is a rectangular building of late 12thc date, built of rubble with ashlar quoins. It is aligned from E to W, and it has thus been suggested (VCH) that it may once have been a chapel, but there is no direct evidence for this. It now has 20thc additions to the N, and is a private residence. The only visible 12thc work is on the S doorway, towards the W end of the S wall; the simple round-headed N doorway, described as “continuously moulded” by Pevsner, is now inside, linking the 12thc hall to the modern addition. This is unfortunately no longer available for examination. According to VCH there were originally four pointed lancets in the S wall. Two survive towards the E end, the westernmost of which has been recently given new jambs, and there is another in the W wall. The three-light E window is 15thc work.
Manor house
Charleston Manor is situated 0.6 miles NW of West Dean church (qv). The earliest datable feature in the W range is a late Norman window, set in the N wall at first-floor level, presumably to light a first-floor hall. An east range was added in the early 17thc. It was doubled by the erection of a new range along its north side in the late 18thc.
Manor house
The ruined Portslade Manor stands to the N of the church. It
incorporates the remains of a 12thc. house, which had a first-floor hall.
Manor house
Appleton is in the NE of the traditional county, less than a mile from the River Thames, which formed the Oxfordshire border. As it is now considered part of Oxfordshire it may be more helpful to say that it is 4 miles NW of Abingdon and 7 miles SE of Witney. The village clusters around the junction of three minor roads W of the A420, with the church near its centre and the manor immediately to the S. Appleton Manor is surrounded on three sides by a dry moat, and dates from c.1200, although it was altered in the late 16th century and refaced in the 20th. The main 12thc feature remaining is the hall, which survives astonishingly intact, although partitioned into two rooms. It runs more or less from E (the low end) to W with its main entrance doorway in the N front of the manor, now protected by a two-storey Elizabethan porch. This gives access to the hall at the E end of the N wall. In the E wall is a pair of doorways leading to the service passage. The S wall, opposite the entrance, contains a large window. The W wall is a later insertion, the hall originally continuing into the room beyond, which now cotains panelling of c.1700. The outer SW angle of this room is decorated with a 12thc shaft. The manor was enlarged in later periods, especially the 16thc, and sensitively restored and enlarged by Detmar Blow in the 1920s.