Clawson Old Manor, Leicestershire

‘The oldest house in the Vale of Belvoir, probably Carolean.’ That’s what Simon and Sally-Ann Shouler were told 25 years ago when they bought it and rescued it from the heritage at-risk register. Otherwise nothing was known. Come and meet us, and we’ll take you on a tour of discovery that starts in 1090, peaks in 1602, and potters on though the centuries to us and now.

A medieval porch, a fishpond that a Danish professor claims to have been continually stocked since before the Black Death, a set of magnificent but contentious chimneys, a runaway wedding from which the present Earl of Huntingdon gets his lineage, a long gallery for ladies who never came, so reduced to grain storage, repossession by a banker who got confused with a pirate, some would say an easy mistake!

The home of a magistrate who tried witches, and a plethora of apotropaic (witch’s) marks.

Ancient interior surfaces, wonderful oak carpentry, an award winning and unique Swithland slate roof, the use and misuse of gypsum in building, of which the house contains maybe 50 tons, collections of oak furniture and domestic renaissance art. And of course the bricked up entrance to the tunnel to the church…

Financed out of the income from the great tithes of Claxton, alias Clawson, Sir Andrew Noel, of Dalby and Brooke, started the rebuilding around 1580, and it was finished by 1610 probably by Sir Henry Hastings of Leicester, who came to live in it around 1620 when his wife died. Henry probably intended it for his second son Richard, who showed his constant interest in the place by carving his name with pride on the windowsills and the wall plaster. Richard’s elder brother, also Henry, married Jane Sacheverell at St Remigius’ Church on July 22nd 1641 by special licence, hiring the house for the occasion and leaving graffiti to mark it, as by then his father had handed the keys to the bankers and moved to Humberston. Come the middle of the century and the end of the Civil War the house was old fashioned and dilapidated. Its three south gables were taken off, and it was divided into two farmhouses. Around 1850, it was put back together, but remained a farmhouse. Although there are many surviving houses that look similar from the outside, this is very rare having kept so much of its early insides.

Our tours usually include teas, served in the house or garden or St Remigius’s church across the road. For special interest groups we can tilt the tour towards conservation skills, or art and furniture, or history of the house.

Tickets £22 including tea and cakes.

What our visitors say:

• We are gradually working our way around all the HH in the UK. We have seen some fantastic places from all moments in history, but today we saw something special. A real home. Not just a museum or a place frozen in time but a real lived-in and loved house. Thank you for the opportunity to see it. The period costume was great as well.
• Met and escorted around by owners in Tudor costume. Wonderful restoration of a building previously on ‘at risk ‘ register. Interesting talk on history of house given in church with hot drinks and mince pies served. Saw all rooms of house, including attics. Medieval fish pond. Our two groups loved it! Very good for a Christmas outing.
• An entertaining and educational tour of a unique house. Lived in and obviously loved by the present owners who delivered an engaging tour (in period costume) that never flagged in interest from start to finish. This is not your usual frozen in time history piece. This is living history. A very personal tour. Tea and cakes in the church. Nice touch.
  

Greeted or guided by the owner