Details
GREAT BOOKHAM COBHAM ROAD
TQ/15/NW (east side)
2/75
7.9.51 Slyfield Manor, with attached
garden walls (formerly listed
as Slyfield House, together with
Slyfield Farm)
GV I
Manor house, now house. C16 or earlier, remodelled and clad in brick in early
C17; reduced in C18; altered. Red hand-made brick in 1+1 garden wall bond, with
some tiles, red tile roof. Formerly part of an interlinked complex which included
the wing now detached and known as Slyfield Farmhouse (q.v.); now L-plan, the
main range on an east-west axis facing south, with coupled wings to the rear of
the west end. Two storeys; the south facade, now 1+7 bays (part of the former
west range remaining as a screen wall), has a plinth with moulded coping of
brick with tile fillets, brick pilasters (mostly Ionic, with pronounced entasis,
badges half-way up, and concave capitals with terracotta volutes), and prominent
boarded eaves on carved wooden brackets. The wide left end (probably formerly
the centre) has a moulded string course and deep moulded cornice, pilasters
framing a wooden transomed 8-light window on each floor, the upper with a
moulded segmental head breaking through the cornice, and a shaped gable with a
rectangular panel containing a diamond, and a pediment above. To the right the
the 1st bay of the main range has a small sashed window at ground floor and a
blocked window above, the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th bays have 16-pane sashes
(except for French windows at ground floor of the 3rd), the 4th and 7th bays
each have a cornice at ground floor and a sill above (as if for windows) and
there is a similar cornice in the 5th bay. The roof has a panelled chimney to
the 1st bay, and a gable chimney to the right. The rear has double brick bands
(the upper dentilled) which step over a doorway in the re-entrant of the wing, a
doorway in the main range with a Sun fire plaque over it and a small window
above with a banded wooden surround, and various other windows including a
wooden mullioned stairlight with 2 transoms in the angle of the wing. Interior:
the entrance hall in the wing has a wooden screen on the left side with Tudor-
arched doorways and a splat balustrade above, and a 4-centred wooden archway
with carved pilasters and spandrels, and pendent "keystone", leading to a fine
early C17 open-well staircase which has rusticated newels with square urn-finials,
geometrical open-work panels instead of balusters, and a matching dado; the
parlour has muntin-and-rail panelling with Ionic pilasters, a moulded Tudor-
arched fireplace of Sussex marble, with a shield in the overmantel, and a
moulded plaster ceiling with a figure of plenty in the centre; the great chamber
above has similar but simpler panelling and fireplace, and a coved ceiling of
moulded plaster decorated with strap-work, swags, cherubs, birds, etc.; the
chambers of the main range also have muntin-and-rail panelling and fine C17
moulded plaster panelled ceilings, each with a central oval, that over the
drawing room containing a female figure of peace (holding an olive branch like a
great quill pen), and the other containing a cherub. The back staircase (at the
east end) has newels like those of the main staircase; the drawing room has C18
panelling. The garden wall, attached at right-angles to the east end of the front,
approx. 40 metres long and 4 metres high, has a saw-tooth band and a cornice,
and a round-headed doorway near the north end and another in the centre with a
pilastered architrave. Reference: J.H.Harvey & G.Slyfield Slyfield Manor and
Family (1953).
Listing NGR: TQ1335857878
