The Old School House

SOMERTON NORTH ASTON ROAD SP42NE (South side) 2/92 The Old School House 26/11/51 (Formerly listed as School) - II

School and schoolhouse, now house. Late C16, possibly incorporating earlier elements, re-modelled and extended mid C18 and late C19/early C20. Limestone rubble with wooden lintels; brick; concrete plain-tile and Welsh-slate roofs with stone and brick stacks. 3-unit lobby-entry plan, with later additions, and schoolroom wing to rear. 2 storeys plus attic. 3-window front has casements of 2, 3 and 3 lights to both floors, and has the entrance between bays 2 and 3; there are several indications of early alteration including a blocked doorway in bay one. Both gables have brick stacks, and the ridge stack in line with the entrance has 2 rebuilt diagonal brick shafts on a rubble base. Schoolroom wing returns from right end and has mostly large C19 stone-mullioned windows, but retains part of an ovolo-moulded frame in a small window to a former first floor. Shallow-pitched slate roof has a central ventilator with a weathervane. A lower C19 wing projecting to the right has a wooden bellcote. A C19/early C20 range, partly infilling the angle, is in brick over a rubble ground floor. Interior: Schoolroom has a 7-light wooden ovolo-moulded mullioned-and-transomed window, now internal. House range contains a large open fireplace with a stop-chamfered cambered bressumer, and has some stop-chamfered spine and lateral beans; C18 display cupboard with serpentine shelves; winder stair; C18 roof with queen-post trusses. The school was founded in 1580 by Thomas Fermor and may have incorporated parts of the castle chapel, reputed to have been on the site. (VCH: Oxfordshire, Vol VI, p290; Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, p768)

Listing NGR: SP4968728873