Clawson Old Manor
An early house made special by its remarkably intact internal features.
West End, Long Clawson, Leicestershire, LE14 4PE
Manageable if you are a bit wobbly on your pins, but not if confined to a wheelchair for you’d only see three rooms and the church in which there’s a disabled loo.
‘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…
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.
Tours that are scheduled will be listed below. If none are scheduled yet, please check back later, or find other tours you might enjoy on our tours listing page here.
Manageable if you are a bit wobbly on your pins, but not if confined to a wheelchair for you’d only see three rooms and the church in which there’s a disabled loo.
Clawson Old Manor, Leicestershire
Clawson Old Manor, Leicestershire
Getting here
West End, Long Clawson, Leicestershire, LE14 4PE
flattens.panicking.pies is our What3Words address, though we tend to eat our pork pies before they need swatting.
There are railway stations at Melton (7 miles) and Grantham (17 miles), and a bus service to Melton six times a day.
We are gradually working our way around all the Historic Houses 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.
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.
