Building record NRN 047 - Manor Farm, Norton Little Green

Manor Farm is an exceptional building of great historic interest that fully merits its starred grade II listing. Lying on high ground in the hamlet of Norton Little Green approximately 1.3km east of Norton parish church it formerly adjoined the northern edge of a medieval green that was partly absorbed by its front garden in 1814. The property’s current name dates only from the 20th century and it was previously known as Hill Farm, a tenanted holding on the estate of Stowlangtoft Hall. It was recorded as Nicholls in the late Middle Ages when it belonged to Ixworth Priory and was acquired by Sir John Sulyard of Wetherden after its dissolution in 1537. Sulyard may have been responsible for the exceptional southern range of the house, which dates from the second quarter of the 16th century. This range is jettied to the former green with a fashionable array of tripartite windows and contains four high-statusrooms, two on each storey, all with roll-moulded ceilings and heated by chimneys in impressive crow-stepped gables. The western gable in particular, with its largely complete pattern of decoration in burnt headers, is among the finest in the county. These rooms were entered by four separate doors in the rear elevation which adjoins two late-medieval structures, and were probably designed as guest lodgings rather than part of a normal domestic house. The northernmost medieval structure originally extended further to the north and appears to represent the fragmentary southern wall of a demolished medieval house that preserves late-16th or early-17th century wall painting beneath 18th century external pargeting – now visible only from the roof of the modern kitchen which was added later. This scheme of paintwork is identical to that of the western bedroom in the jettied range. The property was purchased in 1589 by William Onslow, gentleman, who lived at nearby Norton Hall and appears to have refurbished the house soon afterwards as a lodge or pleasure building where favoured guests could journey from the hall to enjoy special meals and admire landscaped gardens in high Elizabethan fashion. Given its commanding location and unusual layout even before Onslow’s acquisition, Nicholls may have served a similar purpose for Sir John Sulyard and even for the Prior of Ixworth. Onslow added a new open-sided loggia with a gallery or viewing chamber on its upper storey lit by one of the largest and best preserved oriel windows of its period in the region, complete with ovolo-moulded mullions and panelled internal walls (S1).