Torbay Council

Listed building outline: The Manor House (Rnib) 390711

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• Torbay Council boundary
• Listed building outlines

The Manor House (Rnib) 390711

• geometry: MULTIPOLYGON (((-3.507471 50.460225,-3.507491 50.460213,-3.507493...
• entry-date: 1988-12-19
• listed-building: 1292275
• name: The Manor House (Rnib)
• notes: House, now training centre. 1862-4 and c1890 by JR Rowell for Sir Lawrence Palk. Random coursed limestone with stone dressings and slate roofs. Large semi-rural house in restrained Gothic style. PLAN: Rectangular block disposed round central stair hall, kitchen and stable court to north west, billiard room added to north-east corner c1890. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and attics to the main block, 2 storeys to the wing. The main elevation to the garden is on the south side and comprises five bays, each of 2-and-a-half storeys with the central bays recessed. There are 2- and 3-light stone mullioned windows with vertical sashes and those on the ground floor have transoms. Above the lintels are stone relieving arches. The dormer gables have decorative bargeboards with cross braces. The right-hand bay is half-hipped with bargeboards with a 3-light oriel window at first floor upon a supporting buttress with ballflower and zig-zag decorated oversailing courses. At ground floor level there are two pointed-arch windows. At the south-west corner there is an angled porte-cochere. This is a high single-storey structure with plate tracery, balustrading and coats of arms. The angled buttresses support octagonal finials above at each corner and there are two lights within a semicircular relieving arch on the south-west wall. The segmental-pointed carriage arches are in polychrome stonework and the one to the garden side has at sometime been boarded up. There is a patterned marble floor and encaustic tiling in the vestibule. The billiard room (now dining room) appears to have been added at the north-east corner in c1890. This has an attractive stone mullion and transomed corner window with an octagonal spire above at the south-eastern corner. To the rear of the main house is a range of stables and coach houses. The main elevation is of coursed rubble limestone with dressed stone quoins and window details. It is of 7 bays of 1-and-a-half storeys height with a central 2-storey gabled clock tower with bell-cote over the carriage entrance. INTERIOR: The main entrance hall is a high 2-storey space with a gallery around the first floor. An imperial staircase with a 5-light stained glass window at the landing contains the coats of arms of the family. There is an ornamental stone fireplace with a French Gothic hood to the ground floor of the hall and similar fireplaces and overmantels exist in the other principal ground-floor rooms, several being of an elaborate Jacobean character. The dining room (former billiard room) at the rear has an interesting barrel-vaulted ceiling with a full-height hood over the fireplace in the eastern gable wall. The original joinery and plasterwork is almost complete throughout the house. HISTORICAL NOTE: The Palk family were responsible for much of the early development of Torquay during the first part of the 19th century, particularly the Lincombe and Warberry areas. Sir Lawrence was a major benefactor to the town and later became Baron Haldon of Haldon in April 1880. He died in 1883. The house also has associations with Sir Francis Layland-Barratt who purchased the manor in 1906. The manor is now the centre for the Royal National Institution for the Blind and is used as their national rehabilitation centre. A number of alterations have been made to facilitate the use of the building for this purpose, but these are of a minor nature and it remains a remarkably unaltered example of a large Victorian family house. (Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1952-1989: P.860). Listing NGR: SX9310963369
• reference: 390711
• start-date: 1988-12-19