Discover Lower Brockhampton Manor House

As Brockhampton is a small manor house, there are still a few Covid safety measures in place to help keep everyone safe and well when they visit: 

• There is a one-way system around the house; please follow the directional signage provided. There are some smaller rooms that you will be able to see inside but not go into due to social distancing restrictions. 
• Please avoid touching any surfaces and keep a safe distance from others while exploring the house. 
• Although not compulsory, wearing a face mask is recommended whilst inside the manor. 

The manor was completed around 1425 for the Domulton family and was built using giant timbers cut from the estate. During the first half of the 16^th century, it was owned by the Habingtons.  In 1552 Mary Habington married Richard Barnaby, in whose family the house remained for the next four hundred years.

Archaeological digs near the manor house in 2012 uncovered a network of stone walls, indicating that a village, most likely the lost village of Studmarsh, may once have been situated here.

The moat and chapel were built by the family a little later, around 1540 as a symbol of status and wealth. We think even today it still has the ‘wow factor’ as you follow the driveway and first lay eyes on the impressive setting.

Around 1700, Richard Barneby added a two-storey stone and red brick extension to the manor as what was a once an impressive manor was now on the small side and rather dated in comparison to the impressive red brick Georgian mansions which had fallen into favour with the well-to-do. When Richard’s son, Bartholomew inherited the estate in 1731 he commissioned a new survey of the estate by John Perkins but it wasn’t until 1765 he commissioned Shrewsbury architect Thomas Farnolls Pritchard to design him a new home on the estate.

After Bartholomew relocated to his new fashionable red brick home, Brockhampton manor became a modest farmhouse, occupied by tenants and was quietly forgotten. This benign neglect prevented damaging modernisation and by the late nineteenth century such romantic fragments of Olde England had come back into fashion. In the late 1860s John Habington-Lutley consulted the antiquarian architect J.C Buckler, who supervised the sympathetic restoration of Lower Brockhampton Manor.

The manor was bequeathed to the National Trust in 1946 with no surviving heir to the estate, Brockhampton was a rare and picturesque survival of a vanished age. When you visit Brockhampton manor you’ll see each room is set-up to reflect a time in its history so why not come and enjoy nearly six hundred years of history all under one roof?

Ross on Wye Arts Society

In 2015 the Ross on Wye Arts Society was asked by the National Trust to make an embroidered wall hanging for Bartholomew Barnaby’s room.  It was to be in wool and in the style of works in 18^th century and would portray Brockhampton’s ‘spirit of place’ with farming, fruit, orchards and gentry all tied within its design.

A group of five volunteers started designing and working samples. They used Crewel (2 ply) wool and the fabric is a linen twill woven by a weaver in Montrose, Scotland.

The design is based on the tree of life with traditional crewel design elements. It depicts images of the working life on the estate, in 17^th – 18^th century, the Ryeland sheep, Hereford cattle, bees, and the 16^th century gate house, built to impress, over the moat.

The work took four years to complete, meeting weekly. On behalf of the National Trust, Brockhampton would like to thank Maureen Blunden, Thea Cox, Ann Hay, Freda Jefferson and Carol Wells for their hard work and dedication to creating such a fantastic piece, which can now be seen by visitors. Take a look when you’re next here and see what pictures you can depict whilst taking in this wonderful hand-crafted piece.