Clawson Old Manor

‘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.