Clawson Old Manor

A medieval monastic grange rebuilt as a modest Elizabethan gentry house, with long gallery and little intervention over the last four centuries. Conserved from impending dereliction 25 years ago, it retains a rustic interior furnished with old oak, early paintings and an in-depth history.

The Old Manor House, opposite the Parish Church, was the grange of “Edric, the monks’ man” from Belvoir Priory circa 1100, almost entirely rebuilt in Tudor times by Sir Andrew Noel and Sir Henry Hastings, successive impropriators of the Great Tithes of Claxton after the priory was dissolved. A description in The King’s England as “comely and stately among the trees,” masked years of genteel neglect that had allowed the house, which is listed Grade II* by English Heritage, both to retain a huge amount of history but also to slip onto the “at risk” register. During conservation many interesting features were uncovered or identified: medieval fishpond, fourteenth century porch, “wig” cupboards, Elizabethan fireplaces, a long gallery, sixteenth century to eighteenth century graffiti, even a love poem scratched into the plaster work. The house also retains some of the dairy fixtures from Victorian times when prize-winning Stilton cheese was made here, and it remains a working farmhouse.

Research and restoration went hand in hand, and met with general approval and the odd award. Now, for the second time in history, the house is the home of the resident priest or parson for the village, both by happy co-incidence one-time chaplains to the Duke of Rutland.