Details
BILLESLEY
SP15NW Billesley Manor Hotel
1931-1/1/1
06/02/52
(Formerly Listed as:
Billesley Manor)
GV II*
Manor house, now hotel. c1610-20 with C18 extension to west,
altered in C19, and 1906-13 addition to rear wing by Detmar
Blow. Coursed squared blue lias with sandstone ashlar
dressings; steeply pitched renewed tile roof with brick or
stone ridge and internal stacks, mostly with brick diagonally
set shafts. L-plan.
EXTERIOR: south, garden, front of 2 storeys plus attic;
7-window range. End bays and entrance bay to right of centre
project under coped gables with kneelers and finials.
Ovolo-moulded plinth and dripcourse over ground floor.
Entrance bay has round-headed entrance arch with foliate
spandrels, Doric columns and Tuscan entablature; inner
Tudor-arched entrance with 3-light overlight, side lights and
paired studded doors, panelled side benches. Double-chamfered
mullioned-and-transomed windows with leaded glazing, moulded
sills to first and second floors; those to ground floor of 6
lights with 1:6:1-light bay window to each end; first floor
windows of 4 lights, but porch has 3-light windows, window to
right end is cross-mullioned with eared architrave; attic has
windows to gables and gabled dormer to left of centre: 3-light
windows to left, 2-light windows to right, the end one in
architrave.
Right return has gabled left end, catslide re-entrant bay and
symmetrical 5-window range with lower service range to right
end. Round-headed entrance has rusticated jambs and pilasters
to moulded arch with key blocks; lantern and 2-fielded-panel
door. Windows as to front, of 3, 4, or 5 lights; 3-light gable
window and 3 gabled dormers.
Rear has 2 lateral stacks and 2-storey gabled wing with
4-light single-chamfered mullioned window and C19 brick wing
with cross-casement; first floor has wooden mullioned and
transomed windows of 3 and 4 lights; adjacent wing has similar
return windows and 2-storey addition with 3-storey C20 wing
behind. Late C20 wing in C17 style to west end.
INTERIOR: wing has room with exposed beams, ovolo-moulded
fireplace and timber screen to south end with
elliptical-headed doorway and flanking panels, fluted
pilasters, triglyph frieze to entablature and 3 pierced
pediments, 15-panel door. Full-height hall to south has
staircase and gallery to 2 sides mostly C20 reconstruction;
rich C17 panelling with strapwork and fluted pilasters,
Tudor-arched fireplace and enriched overmantel, doors with
rich C17 locks of German or French workmanship; 6-light
window, now to passage, to west; archway with continuous
moulding to south leads to former screens passage to south
porch. South-east room, formerly 2 rooms, has C17 panelling,
possibly removed from first floor, and 2 Tudor-arched
fireplaces; to west of passage a similar room, with central
pier and large fireplace, doorcases with enriched
entablatures; 2 rooms to west end have C18 details:
entablatures and fireplaces with architraves, cornices and
swags, cherubs etc; winding stair to west end.
First floor has 2 richly panelled rooms with fireplaces, that
to east end with deep window openings and enriched fireplace
and overmantel with paired pilasters, reputed priest hide to
chimney breast; room to west has panelling with enriched top
panels and fireplace in partitioned-off corridor.
A good example of a C17 manor house retaining many internal
features of interest and with sympathetic early C20 additions.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Warwickshire: Harmondsworth:
1966-: 93; Victoria County History: Warwickshire: Styles P:
London: 1945-: 58-61).
Listing NGR: SP1463456780