Inside Grade II listed Tudor Manor House in the Cotswolds

When Zoe and George Thompson became custodians of Tudor Manor House 30 years ago, it was in a sad state. Carefully and sensitively, they set about restoring the historic home, bringing it back to life as an impressive family residence

Soon after Zoe and George Thompson moved into the Tudor Manor House in Blockley, Zoe saw a ghost in the red bedroom.

‘I looked to my right and saw a small lady looking at me,’ says Zoe. ‘She wore a long blue tweed skirt, a maroon tweed top, a long white pinny and little black boots. She wore a little white cap on her head, and I think she might have been an early Victorian housekeeper.’

‘In Victorian times it was quite usual to have to walk round to the back of the house to reach the main entrance,’ says Zoe. ‘But we put a new front door into the north side facing the church, close to where our main gates are. (Image: Ben Nicholson) Zoe politely addressed the lady, hoping she didn’t mind sharing her home with them – upon which the lady just vanished. ‘And I haven’t seen her since,’ she says. ‘And that was 30 years ago!’

George Thompson, who had just retired, loved the Grade 2* listed manor house on sight because so many Tudor features were still in place. There were oak beams and lintels, old flagstone floors, stone mullions, big inglenooks, and seven stone-cut fireplaces, some of them hidden behind plasterboard. Zoe loved it, too… with reservations. ‘I knew it was going to be a lot of work,’ she says. For the house, the core of which goes back to 1540, was falling apart.

‘It was habitable,’ she says. ‘But we ended up stripping it. We had to put on a new roof, new chimneys, rewired it throughout, and put in new plumbing. Some of the original beams and flooring weren’t safe as they had woodworm as did some of the panelling. All these had to be replaced. There were car tyres and other rubbish piled up in the attics, and the garden was just a jungle!’

Zoe and George spent a lot of time and care looking for beautiful antique furniture for their home. The seating here is Edwardian (Image: Ben Nicholson) It took the couple – with an architect and a team of builders – a year to put the house in order, during which Zoe found a silver Charles I coin in the attic, and a set of silk pins from Georgian times. ‘The planning officer was wonderful,’ Zoe recalls. ‘He was really pleased that someone was willing to take it on. It was a grand house in the middle of the village, and it was sad that it was falling into disrepair.’

As long as the exterior of the house wasn’t altered significantly, he was willing to let the Thompsons do what they liked inside.

The site of the manor house is ancient. There was a Saxon monastery here in the ninth century, and then a summer palace for the Bishops of Worcester, which was built in the 12th century. The church of St Peter and St Paul, also 12th century, stands just behind it, and the Blockley Brook runs through the two-and-a-half acres of grounds. 

In Zoe’s office, in the west wing close to the central hall, you can see the age from the Tudor oak lintels and stone flagged floor. There is a Tudor cellar below (Image: Ben Nicholson) ‘The palace was well used until the Black Death struck in 1346,’ says Zoe. ‘Half the village was wiped out so there was no-one left to look after it. It had become so derelict by 1539 that the then Bishop came to an arrangement with one Robert Palmer. If Palmer razed the medieval palace to the ground and built a new property, then he could enjoy a free 100-year lease for himself and his family. So, he did and it forms the core of our house.

‘I don’t think there is anything left of the original palace,’ she adds, ‘except maybe Palmer incorporated some of its mullioned windows into the west wing.’

Then, in the 1700s, the diocese of Worcester rented the house out to a Colonel, home from the wars. ‘He decided this lovely Tudor house needed bringing up to date,’ says Zoe. ‘So, he built on an east wing and replaced many of the stone mullions with sash windows.’ A west wing already existed, standing above the Tudor cellar.

The Thompsons built the orangery at the east end, with access through the kitchen (Image: Ben Nicholson) It was not until the mid-1800s that the diocese finally sold Blockley Manor to a private owner – ‘and we quite often have visitors asking if they can see where their ancestors once lived,’ says Zoe.

Among the many changes the Thompsons made was building an orangery in 2008. ‘While the foundations were being dug, an archaeologist came – just for a day – to see if anything exciting was there. It wasn’t,’ she adds.

They also put new handmade oak units in the kitchen and put a damp-proof course under the original flagstone floor. ‘Every stone was numbered before lifting so it could be relaid exactly,’ says Zoe.

The red dining room features a Georgian mahogany table, with Edwardian sideboard in the alcove. The orange curtains are in silk, and the ash wood floor is covered with an Asian rug (Image: Ben Nicholson) There had been just two bathrooms and a downstairs shower room when they arrived, but they removed one bathroom which intruded into a bedroom. Then they converted another bedroom into a bathroom and added three more shower rooms.

In the hall the old oak panelling above the huge inglenook fireplace is original. ‘But, unfortunately, all the other panelling in here which was pine was too wormy to be saved,’ says Zoe, ‘so we replaced it with oak in the style of the original. And the floor consisted of damaged Tudor flagstones of local grey lias stone – but only some could be reused.

‘We lifted them and relaid the sound ones, then filled in the gaps with yellow Cotswold stone laid in a chequered pattern,’ she says.

They had to raise the very heavy old oak lintel above the inglenook when installing Zoe’s new Aga. It meant adding two 12-inch-tall stone blocks on either side of the inglenook. (Image: Ben Nicholson) But now Zoe’s circumstances have changed, and she is moving down to the south to join her children and their families, so is sadly saying goodbye to her beautiful home.

Tudor Manor House is for sale through Savills.

The hall is in the Tudor core of the house, and the inglenook fireplace still works. The oak panelling above it is original but the woodwormed pine panelling on the other wall had to be replaced. (Image: Ben Nicholson) George and Zoe found many of the Georgian fireplaces either hidden behind plasterboard or painted over in gloss. They had to be opened up and wire-brushed back to their original state. Some still had their original 1740s metal grates (Image: Ben Nicholson) This is a new bathroom created from a bedroom. They kept and re-enamelled a particularly long claw-foot bath in one of the other bathrooms (Image: Ben Nicholson) This room is in the old core of the house and where Zoe encountered the housekeeper ghost. (Image: Ben Nicholson) The original floorboards in the main bedroom were not safe, so the Thompsons had a new oak floor laid, then covered with Tibetan handmade rugs. The stone Tudor fire surround was exposed during restoration. (Image: Ben Nicholson) All the exposed oak beams in the attic bedroom are Georgian. (Image: Ben Nicholson)