MSO7878 - Worthy Manor (Building)

A building with an irregular plan is shown on the Tithe Map for Porlock at SS 8588 4815, within an area labelled "Worthy". Together with two linear outbuildings to the southeast, it is labelled 1024, which the accompanying Apportionment describes as "Worthy Farm: House Outhouses Court and Garden", owned by Francis Douglas. [1] The 25 inch 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map shows some small peripheral alterations to the plan form of the house. The site is labelled "Worthy" and "Remains of a Manor House". [2] The building is similarly depicted and labelled on the 25 inch 2nd Edition map. [3] The house is shown on the 2021 MasterMap in a similar plan form to that shown on the 1st and 2nd Edition maps. It is labelled "Worthy Manor". [4] [SS 8590 4815] Worthy Remains of a (NAT) Manor House (NR). [5] The manor house of Worthy was extant pre-1562. There are some traces of it in the present manor house which is largely c. 1900 in date. Worthy is first mentioned around 1292 when Walter of Worthy sued overlord Simon de Roger of Porlock for diverting a stream. Next heard of in 1424 in possession of the Hinsley family. [6] The building is mentioned in Pevsner. [7] The house, now known as Worthy Manor, is not of outstanding architectural interest. [8] The house has been much altered and added to in comparatively recent times though a number of early features survive particularly in the interior. The building is rubble and slightly rough cast. It is two storey, L shaped in plan and features irregular windows, mostly recent wood casements but 3 of 17 th century type. Interior has original plank-and-muntin panelled screens passage with 3 pointed arch doorframes along one side and one on the other. Several similar pointed-arch wood doorframes and one flat-pointed with mouldings stopped to base. The building has exposed ceiling beams and an open timber roof. [9] The house is 16th Century in date or possible earlier. It has been extensively altered, especially in the late 19th and early 20th Century. [10] The house is built of stone rubble, part roughcast under slate roofs, with four stone stacks. The original building is 16th Century or earlier, with late 19th or early 20th Century alterations including a camberedhead porch entrance, added catslide roof and casement windows. Original features are thought to include plank and muntin screens, chamfered beams ornamented with stops, pointed arch timber door frames, and an exposed collar beam roof. [11] Worthy is a lovely house of some antiquity. There is known to have been a house at Worthy as early as the reign of Edward I. The estate, which once consisted of a farm and about 40 acres of land was frequently called Worthy Manor, but there is no known evidence that it ever was entitled to be described as a manor using the word in the technical sense. [12] The building was visited in April 2012 as part of the rapid condition survey of Exmoor's Listed Buildings 2012-13. It received a BAR score of 6. [13] The building was subject to a measured survey in October 1987. The surveyor states that the late medieval house was in the form of an open hall with hearth. A lateral fireplace and stair turret were added, possibly in the 16th Century (at the same time as a large inner room). A solar over a pantry and buttery were located at the lower (northern) end of the hall. A 17th Century extension was added on the west of the hall, which may have held a grand staircase, and a wing was added at a later date. [14] Several of the above authors have suggested the property was altered by CFA Voysey [7,10,11]; however, there is no known documentary evidence to support this. [15] A file of information about the property is held by the Historic England Archive. [16] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [17,18]