Stately home lacking top class china (3)
I believe the answer is:
pal
'china' is the definition.
(china plate is Cockney rhyming slang for mate)
'stately home lacking top class' is the wordplay.
'stately home' becomes 'pa' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'lacking top' means to remove the first letter.
'class' becomes 'cl' (I've seen this in other clues).
'cl' with its first letter taken away is 'l'.
'pa'+'l'='PAL'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pal that I've seen before include "Mate, buddy" , "Friend (colloq.)" , "Bud" , "Mate, informal friend" , "Buddy, chum" .)