Norman Manor House

In 1173 Roger de Stuteville built the Norman manor house, the lower chamber of which still remains today. Since then the property has never changed hands by sale, though it has passed from family to family on occasions when the male line has ended. One of his daughters was named Agnes and she may have been responsible for the name Burton Agnes, which was first recorded in a deed witnessed about 1175.

The Manor House was encased in brick during the seventeenth century, when it was used as a laundry block. The lower chamber still survives in all its gloomy Norman splendour, with massive piers supporting a groined and vaulted roof, reinforced with heavy chamfered ribs. The upper room is thought to have been the Great Hall of Sir Walter Griffith, constructed in the mid-fifteenth century (the timber roof put up then is still in place). Of course Sir Walter's manor-house would have been much larger than the surviving fragments suggest.  Behind the building is a rare example of an old water wheel worked by a donkey, which drew up water from the well.

The Manor House is a grade I listed building under the guardianship of English Heritage. It is open to the public daily April to October from 11am to 5pm and is free of charge.