A manor house is a Country House , which has historically formed the centre of a '''manor''' (see Manorialism ). The term is primarily applied to relatively small country houses which belonged to Gentry families, rather than to grand Stately Homes .
In modern and overseas usage, the term manor or '''manor house''' is often used to mean simply a small or medium-sized country house, with no reference to age or to the historical sense of the term.
