Rectory Farmhouse

Rectory Farmhouse

Farmhouse, dating to approximately the mid-15th century, with remodelling in the 16th century and extensions in the 17th and 18th centuries. The building is constructed of regular coursed ironstone rubble with a steeply pitched gable-ended stone tile roof laid in diminishing courses and stone coped gable end to the left (west). Stone axial and gable-end stacks are present.

The plan is T-shaped. The west range contains three bays of a Medieval house, comprising a two-bay hall and a further bay to the west with clean roof timbers. The hall was floored in approximately the late 16th century. In about the early 17th century, the hall range was extended by one bay on the west and refronted. The putative high end to the east was replaced in about the late 17th century by a cross-wing parallel with Church Street, which was raised and re-roofed in about the early 18th century and extended to the south in about the early 19th century.

The exterior displays two storeys and attic, with an asymmetrical three-window south front. The entrance is positioned left of centre with a four-panel door and 20th-century lintel. To the left is a four-light wooden mullion-transom window, and to the right a five-light stone mullion window with hoodmould and label stops. The first floor has two and four-light stone mullion windows at centre and right, and a wooden mullion window on the left, all with leaded panes and iron casements. The wing on the right has horizontally sliding sashes and casements with glazing bars. The east elevation to Church Street features a twelve-pane sash, a round-headed window, and two cross-mullion-transom windows on the first floor; ground floor windows are boarded over with a stone mullion cellar window visible. A small two-light window appears in the south gable end. A lower two-storey range on the left has a horizontally sliding sash with glazing bars. The rear north elevation of the west range shows what might have been a stair tower and lower wing on the right.

The interior has been little altered since the 19th century and contains 18th and 19th-century panelled doors, cupboards, and shutters, together with 17th-century bolection moulded panelled doors, an early 19th-century staircase, and stone flag floors. The hall features an axial ceiling beam and trimmers with cavetto and ogee mouldings and stops, with ceiled joists. The axial stack contains back-to-back fireplaces; the hall fireplace has ashlar jambs with ogee and cavetto mouldings and broach stops. The stack forms a lobby entrance with chamfered doorframes to the hall and to the room to the left (west).

Three bays of the Medieval roof survive. The two-bay smoke-blackened hall roof contains a central chamfered arch-braced tie-beam truss with V-struts, three tiers of wind-braces, through-purlins, and a diagonal ridgepiece, complete with common-rafter couples. On the north side, the arch brace springs from a carved wooden corbel shaft. The principal members of the hall roof are chamfered. The hall is separated from the west bay by a closed tie-beam and collar truss, with the west bay having one tier of wind-braces. The 17th-century addition to the west has principal rafters made from reused timbers. The east cross-wing has a five-bay tenoned-purlin roof.

Rectory Farmhouse was part of the rectory estate at Bloxham granted to Westminster Abbey in 1067. It passed to Godstow Abbey circa 1180, and after the Dissolution was granted to Eton College in 1539, in whose possession it remains.