Nestled in the centre of the Leicestershire village of Long Clawson is the Old Manor House. On the corner of Sand Pit Lane and West End, the magnificent home is centuries old – and it’s not often that its doors are open to the public, so I savoured the chance for a tour.
In fact there are only three or four days a year when you can venture inside the house that is now owned by the Reverend Simon Shouler and his wife Sally-Ann Shouler. They bought the home more than 25 years ago and were told it was “the oldest house in the Vale of Belvoir, probably Carolean”. The property was not in good shape, with the reverend revealing it was in a “terrible condition” and was even on the Heritage at Risk register.
However, that is no longer the case, with an extensive amount of work, often completed by reverend himself, having been undertaken in the years since. The present house stands on what is thought to be the site of a Belvoir Priory Grange, likely to have been “the house of the monks’ man Edric”, which is recorded in a charter at Belvoir Castle.
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The home with your back to the fishing pond
Edric was responsible for collecting Claxton’s, now Long Clawson, tithe. A tithe is 10 per cent of a village’s corn that would have been given to the priory as a sort of tax. According to Rev Shouler, that would have made Edric not too popular with the Clawson locals.
Beginning the tour outside, we first discussed the fishing pond in the garden. It is one of three in the village which were dug out by the Norman aristocracy after they invaded England in the 1100s.
The porch at the front of the house, which looks over the pond, is mediaeval and is thought to be the only surviving aspect from the grange – dating back to 1250. With your back to the pond is the front of the house, the west wing to your left consists of a two-storey hall.
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This wing was built around 1580 after somebody began to rebuild the manor house two years earlier. In 1610, Sir Henry Hastings of Leicester Abbey bought the home and finished the rebuilding project with the completion of the east wing. Tree-rings in the timbers have confirmed both construction dates, Rev Shouler said.
Also outside is an outhouse which was used as a toilet. Signs for the ‘privy’ and ‘jakes’ now adorn the entrances on each side of the structure.
The jakes outhouse- which was initially built out of mud!
Nearby, a brick archway in the plinth of the home was built to act as a refrigerator in the pantry. Rev Shouler said this would have taken “a huge effort to construct” but would have “achieved nothing towards keeping food fresh”.
Inside, one of the rooms that caught my eye was the ‘old kitchen’. Used for the home’s cooking operations until 1860, it still shows signs of this purpose with the left corner revealing the outline of a long-gone bread oven.
The bricks of the well worn floor were lifted up and put back down in 2021, so underfloor heating could be installed as Rev Shouler said that the room was very cold in winter prior to this. This process revealed the mediaeval foundations of the home.
The old kitchen was so cold that the Shoulers decided to have underfloor heating added
The old kitchen was undoubtedly my favourite room downstairs. The red furnishings gave the room a lot of character and it felt very cosy.
Also downstairs is the ‘great parlour’. The parlour was “not for living in”, Rev Shouler said, but would have been used as a place to receive and talk to guests.
Distinct features of the room include a refectory table which was “posted through the window” but is now impossible to remove. Paintings adorn the walls, alongside a piano that sits in the back corner.
Close by is the ‘garderobe’, which was constructed in 1650 to contain a second staircase. Shelving in the room was used for maturing Stilton, as being in the centre of the house the “fairly constant temperature would have made better cheese”. At one point in time that was part of the great parlour, however the size of that room has now been reduced.
The great parlour was used to receive guests
Today, there is no Stilton in the room unfortunately. Heading up the staircase turret, there are recesses in the stairwell which would have held lanterns. The stairs surround a well that goes straight up to the attic which were used to lift and lower sacks of corn up and down – where they were stored.
On the landing, there are three doorways which at one point in the 16th century led into living quarters for each part of the household. The floor is set out into different chambers, north, south and east.
It would be very easy to get lost in this part of the house. Around every corner there seems to be a different doorway leading off to somewhere new. The north chambers would likely have been the house steward’s quarters, from here he could observe the comings and goings down the village street.
His quarters now comprise a short passage, a large light, questroom and a bathroom. The window in his chamber is full of graffiti, including a Nine Men’s Morris board on the sill.
In the east chambers sits the Great Bedchamber, the only room in the house remaining in its original proportions. A 56-foot-long gallery in the attic looks south over the pond. Heated by a small fireplace, the gallery was for the ladies to “promenade in on rainy days”, Rev Shouler said.
A connecting passage to the north attic, where rainwater runs through beneath the step, was known as ‘Nelson’s Bridge’, something that needs to be seen to be really taken in. There are various other idiosyncrasies that only a home with this history can offer.
Inside the attic long gallery, which has had various purposes over the centuries. It was often used as a place to store corn
In areas of the attic, many attempts have been made to reinforce the wooden beams under the weight of the roof. This includes part of a cartwheel, which is as absolutely bizarre as it sounds!
If you want to learn more about Clawson Old Manor House, you can pay for a tour of the home. These are on select dates and only happen three or four times a year.
The costs of the tour go to the St Remigius Church in the village. To inquire about booking a tour you can visit the Historic Houses website.