Norbury Old Manor is a charming stone-built medieval house, directly attached at right angles to a much larger 17th century red-brick house, known, rather confusingly, as Norbury Manor.
Both manors were bequeathed to the National Trust in 1987, on the death of Marcus Stapleton Martin, the last owner, who had devoted a great deal of time to the renovation of these beautiful buildings.
The Trust operates the newer house as a holiday let for groups of up to ten people (and two dogs), and it opens the Old Manor to the public every Thursday, between 10am and 2.30pm, from May to September.
On these open days, volunteer guides are on hand to respond to historical questions, point out interesting features and explain how the rare combination of a medieval house and a Jacobean mansion came about.
The Fitzherberts
Norbury became the principal seat of the Fitzherberts in 1125, when William Fitzherbert began renting an estate owned by the Priory at Tutbury.
The lovely medieval manor you see today is the surviving wing of a stone-built courtyard house that was built by Sir Henry Fitzherbert in the mid to late 13th century.
Visitors enter the Old Manor on the ground floor, from where one flight of steps drops down to the cellars and a second staircase leads up to the Great Hall. The positioning of this important room on the first floor is very unusual in a manor house of this period.
Another rarity is the king-post arrangement that supports the Great Hall’s open-beamed roof – a king post is a vertical wooden shaft that links the apex of the roof to the horizontal beam below it.
Essentially, the Great Hall is a rectangular chamber where one wall is punctuated by a large fireplace with a plain surround.
The hall is sparsely furnished, with a late medieval chest set against the far wall, and a sturdy Elizabethan table, with beautifully carved legs, occupying the middle of the room.
As soon as visitors walk into this space, they sense that they are going back in time, imagining members of the Fitzherbert family sitting together around that grand table to share a hearty meal.
Several members of the family and their in-laws are represented in a series of stained-glass heraldic shields etched on the windows, which look out from the room onto the churchyard of the Church of St Mary and St Barlok, located a mere stone’s throw from the Old Manor.
A very different stained-glass design is to be found on a window on the outer wall of the landing outside the Great Hall. This takes the form of a depiction of ‘Winter’, etched in 17th century Flemish grisaille glass.
The illustration shows a couple, heavily muffled up against the cold, walking in a landscape where all the trees have shed their leaves.
This imagined landscape is completely at odds with the actual landscape that can be seen from the window. This is best described as ‘a mishmash of a knot garden and herb garden, with a dash of topiary for good measure’.
When visitors descend from the landing and go out into the garden, they realise that it has suffered from a very bad bout of box-blight.
Regardless of its current state, the garden is the ideal spot from which to appreciate the contrasting architectural qualities of the two manors, and to look closely at decorative doorway surrounds that were grafted onto the Old Manor at different times.
One of the doorways may have been designed as an entrance to a bakery, whilst the more elaborate surround of another opening suggests it could have framed the three-planked Tudor door that is now, rather forlornly, propped up against a wall inside the house.
Improved finances
The garden is bordered on its right-hand side by the rear gabled wall of the large red-brick building constructed by the Fitzherberts in the 17th century – at a time when their finances had improved because they were no longer being subject to fines for adhering to their Catholic faith.
Surprisingly, the family only lived in their new Manor House for a brief period, because they decided to relocate to Swynnerton Hall, in Staffordshire, another Fitzherbert property. The Fitzherbert estate in Norbury was tenanted to the Maskery family before it was sold in 1872 to Samuel Clowes.
The front of Norbury Manor, which is not visible from the knot garden, has a very imposing rectangular façade lit by 15 leaded windows. Some of the first-floor windows incorporate stained-glass medallions, whilst those on the ground floor feature coats-of-arms.
Its luxurious interior is described by the National Trust as ‘having fine period furnishings, dark panelled walls and lots of cosy places to relax, with the sitting room and snug each having a wood-burner’.
As is to be expected, many groups choose Norbury Manor as the perfect base for a holiday in the green and pleasant countryside of South Derbyshire.
Whilst you are there
After hearing a lot about the Fitzherberts during your tour of Norbury Old Manor, you may wish to seek out memorials to the family in the adjacent Church of St Mary and St Barlock.
The most prominent of these memorials are two magnificent chest tombs, which are eerily illuminated by natural light flooding in from the huge east window of the church.
One tomb is topped by an effigy of Sir Nicholas Fitzherbert, who died in 1473. The other tomb is surmounted by effigies of Sir Ralph Fitzherbert, who died in 1483, and his wife Elizabeth. Its side panels are lavishly decorated with rows of sculptured figures standing beneath a series of ogee arches.
After leaving the heights of Axe Edge, near Buxton, the river Dove flows through a long series of spectacular gorges before entering much less dramatic meadow and woodland pastures, where there are lots of opportunities to take pleasant walks.
At the foot of Norbury, the river is crossed by Ellastone Bridge, which marks the border between Derbyshire and Staffordshire.
The Duncombe Arms
The village of Ellastone is situated just over the border in Staffordshire. Its pub, called the Duncombe Arms, is an ideal place in which to take a breather and enjoy refreshments after your walk along the Dove Valley.
Its website promises that it serves ‘award-winning classic and modern British food in the relaxed surroundings of a country pub’.
