The Old School

STEEPLE ASTON NORTH SIDE SP4726, SP4725 (North side) 8/114, 9/114 The Old School 08/12/55 (Formerly listed as Radcliff's School) GV II

School, now house. Founded 1640, but probably c.1688 for Richard Duckworth; enlarged 1877. Mixed marlstone and limestone rubble, formerly roughcast, with limestone-ashlar dressings; Welsh-slate and Stonesfield-slate roofs with stone-and-brick stacks. Single range with added parallel range and stair wing. One storey plus attic and single storey. Symmetrical 3-window front of main range has large 2-light windows with moulded architraves and rectangular mullions, set below a moulded string which returns around the gable walls and breaks forward slightly over each window; a central stone plaque with a moulded surround records the foundation and restoration. Welsh-slated roof has 3 hipped dormers and stone-based gable stacks. Left gable wall has a deeper window with transoms, and there is a keyed oval window within a square surround in the gable; wall returns to the gable wall of the single-storey stone-slated rear range, which has a similar moulded string and a matching 3-light transomed window. Right gable wall of main range has a further 2-light transomed window plus a 3-light C19 stone-mullioned window in the gable. C19 stair wing, projecting from the right end, has single-light windows with moulded stone architraves, a plain-architraved entrance, and has a stone bellcote on the gable; a parapetted section to rear includes a re-set C17 doorway with a Latin inscription on the lintel. Interior: intersecting chamfered beams to the main roan. The school was founded by Dr. Samuel Radcliffe, principal of Brasenose College, and was restored (or probably rebuilt) by Richard Duckworth, rector. (VCH: Oxfordshire: Vol XI, p43; Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, p787)

Listing NGR: SP4751226002