Albright Hussey manor

Description

House, now restaurant. 1524, enlarged probably in the mid-to late C16 and again in 1601. Altered, and rebuilt to rear in the mid-to late C19. Timber framed with plastered infill, enlarged in red brick with grey sandstone ashlar dressings and attic. Painted brick to rear. Plain tile roofs. Framing: early C16 part with square panels and diagonal struts forming lozenge patterns. Late C16 addition has ground- floor closely-spaced studs with middle rail and S-shaped tension braces, and first-floor square quatrefoil panels with carved quatrefoils to rails; cusped S-braces to rear. Close studding beneath windows. One early C16 framed bay with later porch to east, 1601 addition to west, and service range to rear. 2 storeys, with 3-storey C17 addition and rear range of 2 storeys and gable-lit attic. South front; right-hand block: jettied first floor with moulded bressumer; porch to right jettied on 3 sides with chamfered brackets and cable-moulded shafts to corners of each floor. Large C16 external brick end stack to right with stone plinth and 5 star-shaped shafts with oversailing caps, and C19 external brick end stack to porch with oversailing cap. 2-window front; C19 four, six-and seven-light wooden mullioned and transomed diamond-leaded casements; square oriels to left on shaped-brackets. Right-hand gable end: porch to left has blocked C16 first-floor window with moulded wooden cill and 2 carved scrolled brackets. Boarded door to right with Tudor arch, carved spandrels, ovolo-moulded surround, and flanking moulded shafts with moulded capitals and brackets. Gable rebuilt in C19 but retains tie-beam with carved vine trail ornament. Left-hand block: chamfered stone plinth, flush quoins, cyma-recta moulded string courses above ground-and first-floor windows, and parapeted gable end to left with moulded coping. External brick lateral stack to rear with ashlar dressings and ashlar shaft with moulded base and cornice. 2-window front; 2-and 4-light double-chamfered mullioned and transomed stone windows with leaded lights. 3-light double-chamfered mullioned stone attic window with leaded lights. Boarded door between windows, off-centre to left, with straight-sided arched head. Left-hand gable end has double-chamfered mullioned and transomed stone windows, 4-light to ground and first floors, and 3-light to attic with cyma-recta moulded cornice. Large C20 raking buttress. - Rear service range with external brick end stack to west and C19 one-storey wing at right angles with integral brick end stack. Interior: C16 right-hand first-floor room with deeply moulded cross-beamed ceiling (3 x 3 compartments), chamfered posts and stone fireplace with corbelled segmental arch and moulded re- veals. Porch to right with chamfered dragon beams. C17 left-hand ground-floor room has pair of chamfered beams with ogee stops running front to back, straight-sided chamfered-arched doorway to rear, oak panelling, and C17 rendered fireplace to rear with chamfered reveals. Old oak winder stair to rear. Central first-floor room has 3 chamfered beams with ogee stops, chamfered posts, chamfered and stopped wall plate, and 2 blocked doorways, one segmental-headed and one chamfered with ogee head. Right-hand first-floor room with deep-chamfered beams, chamf- ered and ogee stopped joists, and former end wall of 1524 part to left with lozenge-pattern framing. Left-hand first-floor room with chamfered beams and chamfered-arched stone fireplace with panelled spandrels. Small room taken out of left-hand first-floor room with oak panelling. Large open former kitchen fireplace in rear range. The porch was formerly dated 1524 and former wainscot panelling in the C17 addition was inscribed: "Made by me Edward Huse 1601". Neither inscription noted at time of survey (January 1987). A drawing of the house made in 1821 shows the timber framed range before the roof was rebuilt, with a gable to the front, a steeper gable over the porch and a further gabled range behind that, parts of which are probably incorporated in the present rear range. Some sources (Leach and Stackhouse Acton) date the 1601 block at c.1560. The house stands within a moated site (q.v.) and there was formerly a chapel to the south-east, of which nothing, except a few carved fragments, remains. (Listed Building Report)

Comments

C16 moated manor house included by Mike Salter in the 2nd edition of his castled and moated mansions book. It is matter of opinion as to whether this constitutes a fortified manor although it was strong enough to be defended in the Civil War. The moat may well date from earlier than the current house.