Description

WEST ALVINGTON

1304/5/185 Gerston Manor, Front Garden Wall and G
26-JAN-67 ate Piers, and South Manor

(Formerly listed as:
GERSTON FARMHOUSE INCLUDING FRONT GARD
EN WALL AND GATE PIERS)

II
Farmhouse, now sub-divided into two dwellings. C17 with earlier origins and C18, C19 and C21 additions and alterations.

MATERIALS: Slate-stone rubble walls, mainly rendered with smooth cement. Welsh slate roofs and timber fenestration.

PLAN: A main three room single-depth range with rear (west) cross-wing and lower barn range to the south, subdivided into two floors. The main range is currently subdivided into two houses: Gerston Manor to the north and South Manor, including the barn range, to the south. South Manor has a narrow single-storey extension at the east end. A C21 two-storey extension to the rear of Gerston Manor contains staircases.

EXTERIOR: The two-storey farmhouse has an asymmetrical five window front, with slightly projecting left end. There are mainly C21 tripartite sashes, modelled on a unit in the first-floor right bay, possibly early-C19. The C21 slate roof is hipped to the left end and gabled to the right, with a half-hipped wing at the rear. Two axial stacks with drip-courses and a right gable-end stack are rubble. A C18 porch to the right of centre (serving Gerston Manor) has a flat hood supported on corbelled stone piers. Heavy C18 double doors, each of three panels, are set in a C17 ovolo-moulded wooden doorframe. To left of centre is a C20 glazed porch (serving South Manor) with a small outbuilding wing/ lobby beyond. The half-hipped, C18 farm range at the south end of South Manor is of exposed slate-stone rubble with two doorways and stone steps and is of at least two phases. The range terminates with a single-storey rubble stone lean-to addition. At the rear (west) is a cut-off stone lateral stack, partly rendered. A stone rubble garden wall at the front of Gerston Manor has rough square piers with ball finials.

INTERIOR: Gerston Manor was not inspected (2009). South Manor has an early chamfered round-headed door with a pintle (pivot for a hinge). Also, there is a wide, segmental-headed stone fireplace in the principal ground floor room, from which a C19 chimneypiece has been removed. The chimneypiece has been re-sized and installed in the bedroom on the first floor.

HISTORY: A building by the name of Gerston Manor was the historic family seat of the Bastard family, holders of nine manors in Devon in the Domesday Book. It has been suggested that the Bastards lived at Gerston Manor for several centuries after the Conquest, and that the current farmhouse probably stands on the former manor house site. The family's standing in the area was resurgent in the late C16, and at the turn of the C17 William Bastard became MP for Dartmouth. The family seat became re-established at Gerston at around this time, roughly contemporary with the rebuilding of the house.

The principal farmhouse range is C17, with fragmentary remains that appear of earlier date, probably medieval. The C18 cross wing and the farm buildings were constructed when the house was remodelled. The building is shown in its current configuration on the Ordnance Survey map of 1886, where it is referred to as "Gerston" and states "Remains of a Mansion".

REASON FOR DESIGNATION
Gerston Manor including the front garden wall and gate piers, and South Manor, Gerston is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Although it has undergone subdivision, alterations and extensions, Gerston Manor remains a substantial C17 farmhouse that retains evidence for its medieval origins
* The growth and development of the building can be read in the surviving elements
* It has a long-standing association with the Bastards, a prominent local land-owning family
* It has group value with other listed buildings nearby

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26610539

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)