Princes Risborough Manor

Princes Risborough Manor is an elegant, L-shaped, red-brick 17th century house.

Although only short distance from Princes Risborough High Street, the manor house and garden, are set in a peaceful and secluded location behind their little walled courtyard.

The sash windows and pedimented doorway of the dignified entrance front at first sight suggest that the building is early Georgian.

However, the style of the brickwork and the pilasters indicate an earlier period. The brickwork is a mixture of English and Flemish bond and this indicates that the house was constructed in the second half of the 17th century when Flemish bond began to compete with the earlier type of brickwork. The pilasters stop below the eaves and serve no structural purpose. This reflects a period when provincial builders were unsure about the use of these classical features.

The garden elevation has two windows with wooden mullions and transoms and these clearly date the house as Charles II or late Stuart. In fact the manor house was at one time owned by Sir Peter Lely, court painter to Charles II.

Inside the house there is a splendid oak staircase with an openwork balustrade cut out of the solid wood. Although Jacobean in style, this is the type of work that a country joiner may well have produced the the mid-17th century.

In the drawing room, the panelling is characteristic of the 17th century and the heavy moulding of the elaborate chimneypiece also indicates an early date. A 16th century fireplace found elsewhere in the house appears to have to have survived from an even earlier house which was transformed soon after the Restoration..