Summary
Nos. 74 and 76 Austerby is a late-C16 or early-C17 Manor House, probably subdivided in the C18, with later C18 and early-C19 additions.
Reasons for Designation
Nos. 74 and 76 Austerby, a late-C16 or early-C17 manor house associated with the estate of Bourne Abbey, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Date and intactness: The house is of special interest for its late-C16 or early-C17 date, and for the survival of fabric, including roof structure and architectural detail.
* Interior: Original interior detail also survives, including fireplaces and joinery that display high quality craftsmanship.
* Historical interest: It is of special historical interest for its association with Bourne Abbey, and for the quality and craftsmanship of interior detail that signify the high status of the building.
History
The late-C16 or early-C17 manor house includes no. 76 and part of no. 74 Austerby, with no. 76 forming the cross-wing to no. 74, the main range. This house dates to the late C16 or early C17, and several sources state that it was the former residence of the Abbot of Bourne. Architecturally the present house appears to be a post-Reformation building, built in a single phase of construction some time after the dissolution of the monasteries, but it seems likely that it formed part of the estate of Bourne Abbey and may have replaced an earlier manor house. The 1888 Ordnance Survey map shows the house as one, with the existing small single-storey structure attached to the north gable end of the cross-wing. To the east are three separate units that now form part of no. 74. The historic maps, then, suggest that the separation of the cross-wing from the main range must have taken place in the C20, but the deeds of no. 74 are said to indicate that the division of the manor house into two took place in the late C18 or early C19.
Sometime in the C19 the west elevation was re-fronted and re-modelled in a more self-consciously 'Tudor' style, with wood mullioned and transomed windows with label moulds over. The re-fronting also raised the eaves, creating a slightly swept roofline on this side. The C19 entrance to the cross-wing (replaced in the early C21 by doors to the south) opened onto the north stack, and it seems that the entrance to the main range (now no. 74), towards the east end of the south elevation, also opened onto a massive stack. At an unknown date the lower part of this entrance was filled with stone and a two-light mullioned Tudor-arched window inserted. A new entrance was created in the north elevation, immediately to the east of the cross-wing. To the east of the main range stack is what seems to be a stone-built addition to the house, but given the irregularity of the join this may be a partial rebuild. To the east of this narrow section is a brick-built addition, a working bakery until 1962; the large bowed window suggests it had also been a shop in the C19, but it seems that latterly this function had been fulfilled by a timber building to the north which no longer exists. The substantial ovens were removed in the 1980s when no. 74 was refurbished and the bakery converted for domestic use. The roofs of the brick buildings were all replaced at this time and a stair in the south-west corner of the main range, now the living room, was also apparently removed.
In 2004 planning permission and Listed Building Consent were granted for the conversion of no. 76 Austerby into two dwellings, Nos.76 and 76b. According to the historic map evidence part of no. 76b may also originally have been part of the main house; the stack shared between nos. 76 and 76b appears to confirm that. However, no. 76b is substantially a late-C20 building, the south half replacing and extending beyond the limit of earlier outhouses.
Details
Manor house, late-C16 or early-C17, probably subdivided in the C18, with later C18 and early-C19 additions.
MATERIALS: The house is built of coursed limestone rubble, with occasional bands of larger, lighter coloured limestone, and with ashlar quoins and dressings. The east and west elevations of the cross-wing are rendered. The roof of the cross-wing is slate, but the main range and brick-built additions are tiled. The early C19 additions to the east are of brick.
PLAN: The house is L-shaped and consists of a main range and cross-wing. The cross-wing is oriented north to south. All parts of the house, except the garage to the east, are of two storeys.
EXTERIOR: The C19 west elevation has three timber mullioned and transomed windows to ground and first floors, all with hood moulds, that to the ground floor continuous. All other windows throughout are three-or-four-light mullioned windows with ovolo moulding. The north gable end of the cross-wing has a single four-light window to both ground and first floors. Projecting north from the ground floor of the gable end is a single-storey, hipped roof outhouse or store, rendered and painted. To the east of the cross-wing, the north elevation of the main range has a three-light window to the first floor and one with four-lights to the ground floor. To the east end of the first floor is a very narrow three-light window with timber lintel.
Immediately to the east of the cross-wing is an entrance with a panelled door. At the east end of the south elevation of the main range is a blocked door, its lower half filled with stone with a Tudor-arched, moulded mullioned window above. Immediately to the east of this is a stone-built addition which has a single-storey brick porch on its north side. To the east of that the hipped roofed two-storey section has a bowed window with glazing bars to the ground floor of its north elevation. All other windows in these later C18 or C19 additions are modern.
INTERIOR: The ground floor of the cross-wing has a linear plan of three rooms; from the south a kitchen opens into a central living room, the north wall of which contains a wide fireplace, constructed of large ashlar limestone blocks with a moulded arch and mantelpiece, above which at ceiling height is a moulded stone lintel or cornice. The main range, the west end of no. 74, contains a single room and is divided from the cross-wing by a brick wall lined with panelling removed from the first floor. A massive stack separates the original main range from the later additions to the east, but the fireplace is sealed and fronted by a modern stone structure. Both this room and the south room of the cross-wing (the kitchen) contain single substantial chamfered beams with neatly carved lambs tongue stops. The third ground floor room in the cross-wing has a small rectangular niche set into one wall, similar to others seen in the main range.
Stairs to the first floor of the cross-wing are between the central and north rooms. The first floor plan of the cross-wing is also linear. The ceiling here has been raised revealing tie beams and the lower end of rafters. The central room contains a moulded early-C17 limestone fireplace; there is a similar fireplace in the east first floor room of the main range. The first floor of the main range is reached by a modern staircase in the stone-built addition to the east.
The roof, only fully visible in the cross-wing, is of principal rafter construction with butt purlins, a ridge piece and low set collars. The roof of the main range is said to be complete but has been lined to create storage space; only the collars are visible. To the east is the chimney stack, well-constructed of coursed rubble limestone with ashlar quoins.
