Manor House - History and Architecture

History and Architecture

The manor house was the dwelling house, or "capital messuage", of a feudal lord of a manor, which he occupied only on occasional visits if he held many manors. As such it was the place in which sessions of his manorial courts were held. Sometimes a steward or seneschal was appointed by the seigneurial lord to oversee and manage his different manorial properties. The day-to-day administration was delegated to an official, who in England was called a bailiff, or reeve.

Although not typically built with strong fortifications as castles were, many manor-houses were partly fortified; they were enclosed within walls or ditches that often included the farm buildings as well. Arranged for defence against robbers and thieves, they were often surrounded by a moat with a drawbridge, and equipped with small gatehouses and watchtowers, but not with a keep, large towers or lofty curtain walls to withstand a siege. The primary feature of the manor house was its great hall, to which subsidiary apartments were added as the lessening of feudal warfare permitted more peaceful domestic life.

By the beginning of the 16th century, manor houses as well as small castles began to acquire the character and amenities of the residences of country gentlemen. This late 16th-century transformation produced many of the smaller Renaissance châteaux of France and the numerous country mansions of the Elizabethan and Jacobean styles in England.