MANOR ROAD
(formerly GREAT STREET or BIG STREET)
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Left

The Old Bakehouse is a two and a half storey house of random rubble to front and gables, with a rear of red brick (19th century). The sash windows to the front have blue brick quoins. There are two half dormers in the blue slate roof; the chimneys are of blue brick. This was until 1935 one of the two bakeries in the village, and the original baker's oven still exists in the adjoining outbuilding. The oven was always kept hot and, as well as bread, one could purchase hot pies here.

The Old Bakehouse

The Old Methodist Chapel was converted to residential accommodation in the 1970s. It was built in 1863 of red brick, with a slate roof and carved bargeboards. The windows are of the original long lancet type, with steel frames and diamond panes. There are a number of bull's-eye windows. The porch, added in 1893, has brownstone dressings with brick infill.

The Old Methodist Chapel

Threagles and Mayfield are modern bungalows of the 1960s, built of limestone from the quarry at Syresham. Both have tiled roofs and casement windows. Mayfield was enlarged in 1990.

Apple Acre dates in part (at least) from the early 18th century. It was built of random rubble limestone; its thatched roof was later replaced with slate. From the mid-18th century it was an ale-house, know variously as The Scale and Compasses (its one-time owner was a carpenter, hence the compasses), The Square and Compasses and, from 1849, The Three Compasses. Later it became a farrier's and then from 1925 until the 1950s, it was the village post office. Now a private house, its present name refers to a former orchard behind. It has casement windows, and a brick lean-to has been added to the frontage in recent years.

The row of four cottages - Harry's Cottage, Toad Hall, Nutcracker Cottage and The Cottage - were built, probably in the 18th century of stone: Toad Hall and The Cottage are of the pale local stone, while Nutcracker Cottage and the west end of Harry's Cottage are mainly of the dark brownstone; there are also alternating bands of the two. The roofs were tiled in the 1950s (Harry's Cottage and Toad Hall have concrete tiles, Nutcracker Cottage has grey asbestos slates and The Cottage has wooden shingles). The windows are various types of purpose-made casements. The front doorsteps of Toad Hall are old millstones. A two-storey extension was built in 1953 to the rear of The Cottage; the datestone is inscribed VLC 1953.

Hill Farm House (now no longer serving as a farm) stands, typically for this area, in the very middle of the village, parallel to and close to the street. It may date in part from the late 17th century, but has been largely rebuilt. The rear and gables are of random rubble stonework, the front of rough recovered ashlar. On the rear is an old stone diminishing chimney-stack with side windows to an inglenook (no longer there). There are brownstone dressings to the windows and the stack. The eastern gable fell down in the 1950s and was rebuilt in yellow brick. Originally thatched, the house was re-roofed in tiles in the 1970s; the gables are raised, with copings and corbels.

The barns and outbuildings in 'Golby's Yard', behind Hill Farm, were converted to residential use in the early 1980s. The resultant three houses, 1, Hill Farm Yard, Middle Barn and The Old Stables, are partly of the original limestone, partly of brick. The roofs - two of which are steeply pitched in the local style - are tiled. A date stone showing 1670, unfortunately no longer visible, is on one of the jambstones of the main barn. Windows are modern casements with wooden frames.

The converted Barns in Golby's Yard

The Star Inn has long been a public house, now the only one in the village. It is of random rough coursed limestone. The thatch was replaced with concrete tiles in the mid 1930s; the gables are raised, with coping stones, corbels and kneelers. The chimneys are of blue brick on the original stone bases. The casement windows have oak frames, with metal inserts and leaded lights. The two large flat-roofed dormer windows were added when the inn was modernised in the mid-1980s; at the same time a single-storey outhouse to the rear was raised to two storeys, with a tiled roof. The inn sign was made by the village blacksmith in 1839.

The Star Inn

Endways was once a terrace of three stone cottages, much altered over the years. The stone for the random rubble walls was probably obtained from a small quarry on the opposite side of the street. The thatched roof was replaced with blue slates in the late 1890s; these were in turn replaced with tiles when the cottages were converted into a single house in the mid-20th century, when modern casement windows were fitted.

Bengairn, Magpie Cottage and Lark Rise are all that remains of a terrace of eight stone cottages, variously demolished, altered and rebuilt over the last century. All were originally of random rough coursed limestone with thatched roofs. In the 1950s/60s, the third cottage was demolished, and the now separated first two were modernised to form one house (Bengairn), with slate roof and brick chimneys. This house now has modern UPVC windows, with leaded lights. The front walls of the remaining cottages were rebuilt in red brick in 1890, to form four cottages with slate roofs. These were converted into two cottages in the 1950s modernisation, with wet-dash finish to gables and front. They were further modernised in 1986/87. The front windows are steel casements; others are of timber.

The Towrise Estate (so named because of its proximity to the source of the River Tow, or Tove) was built in the early 1950s. The buildings are of two types: the first group (thirteen houses and two bungalows) are of Guiting stone, from near Winchcombe in the Cotswolds; the remainder (three houses, one bungalow and two flats) are of grey brick. All have tiled roofs. UPVC double-glazed windows were fitted in 1991.

Towrise

Lowick was built in 1991, of coursed limestone, with a steeply-pitched roof of tiles. The casement windows are wood-framed, with oak lintels.

Nash's was at one time a self-contained farm, with land stretching up to Winnett Hill on the Weston Road: a map of 1866 shows a 'homestead' in the farmyard, now long disappeared. The name Nash's dates at least from the same period. Subsequently the land was rented out to various farmers. In the 1950s the yard first became livery stables, and, following a break, has again served this purpose for the last fourteen years.

The Thatched House Hotel, probably dating from the late 17th or early 18th century, has walls of coursed rubble and rough ashlar, the stone possibly from earlier demolished buildings. The gable ends, with copings, kneelers and corbels, rise above the thatched roof. The chimneys are of ashlar and are similar to those of the north wing of Sulgrave Manor, presumably being of the same "Queen Anne" period. The windows are leaded casements in squared oak frames. There is a firemark under the thatch on the front wall, and an old dovecote in the east gable.

The Thatched House

Manor Cottage, also still thatched, was originally a terrace of four 17th century cottages. Apart from the insertion of a window in one of two built-up doorways, and the 19th century chimneys, the external appearance is little changed. Interesting is the brownstone banding on part of the frontage; the rest is rough coursed limestone. Now one dwelling, in the 1930s it served as a tea-room for visitors to the Manor House.

Next door is another thatched building, Kiln Farmhouse, which, like the Thatched House, has ashlar chimneys in a style similar to those of the Manor north wing, dating it to the early 18th century. Here, too, the external appearance is largely unaltered. The walls are of a mixture of stones, including some brownstone, possibly recovered from earlier buildings. The windows are of squared oak, with plain glass panes; one of the front windows has brownstone dressings and mullions. There is a firemark high on the front wall.

Kiln Farmhouse

Kiln Farm Cottage is a small square two-bedroom house of random rubble limestone, of early 19th century date, with brick chimneys and a roof, formerly of slates, covered in tiles in the mid 1960s. The original wood-framed casement windows remain.

Of similar date are the two cottages beyond, 1 and 2 Manor Road, which have been added to and altered several times. They are of random rubble stonework with slate roofs and inserted red-brick dressings and arches over windows and doors. Earlier in the present century a lady living in one of these cottages used to teach lace-making, for which this part of the County was apparently well-known.

A short distance along the Weston Road, and technically outside the village, past a small semi-enclosure on the left, with birch-tree, which was at one time the village pound (where stray animals were rounded up), stands Manor View. This red-brick bungalow used to be situated opposite Sulgrave Manor on Little Street, but it ws demolished in the 1930s - because it affected the view from the Manor! - and re-erected on its present site. Since then it has been extensively enlarged, with rooms in the pitched roof and a flat roofed extension. The roof is tiled, and the timber casement windows have leaded lights.

Right

Yew Tree House, probably of 18th century date, is built of random rubble limestone with blue slate roof. The modern casement windows with leaded lights were installed when the house was refurbished in the 1950s. The attic rooms are lit by fully-pitched dormer windows.

Asby House is a large modern house, built in 1984 of coursed limestone, with a tiled roof and casement windows, wood framed.

The pair of semi-detached cottages, Spring Gardens, were built of Guiting stone in the 1950s. They have tiled roofs and roof soffits of overhanging tiles (as in the houses in Towrise). The casement windows have been recently replaced with UPVC units.

Swallow Cottage was possibly built largely of "tailings", which are small pieces of stone left over from the dressing of larger stones. These may have been taken by a "do-it-yourself" enthusiast from the small quarry close by; the quality of the stone improves higher up the walls. The roof, once thatched, was covered in blue slates in about 1900; the gables are protected by wide overhanging timber verges of the late 19th century. The cottage was comprehensively mdoernised in 1990/91.

The Bungalow next door was built in 1989, of stone with brick quoins and arches, tiled roof and casement windows. Beneath is a garage with direct access to the road.

The two bungalows Hangland and Vinecroft, and the three houses Dassetts, The Limes and Fox Haven were erected in the mid-1960s of reconstituted stone blocks, the roofs are tiled, and the window-frames are of timber or UPVC.

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