Tithe Barn Adjoining Tythe Barn House

This is a tithe barn, likely completed around 1422 for New College, Oxford. It was probably reduced and partly rebuilt in the 17th century and altered around 1877 for Lord Haldon. The barn is constructed of marlstone ashlar, with some limestone-ashlar dressings, and has a Stonesfield-slate and concrete plain-tile roof. It originally had a 5-bay plan, probably longer than the current structure.

The front facing the road has six stepped buttresses; the westernmost is likely 17th century. A central doorway features a pointed chamfered arch and a hood mould. The east gable wall retains its medieval character with three buttresses—the angle buttresses set diagonally—and three long slit openings. At the rear, only the two easternmost buttresses are medieval; the raking westernmost buttress is probably 17th century, with three 19th-century buttresses having limestone dressings. The walling of the central bay replaces an earlier wide porch or doorway, the jambs of which are visible inside. The west gable wall, partly hidden by adjacent farm buildings (now Tythe Barn House), is probably 17th century and contains a wide 19th-century doorway with a shallow depressed arch in limestone ashlar. Both sides have two square 19th-century windows set below the eaves, and there are two hipped-roof dormers.

Inside, the slits have wide splayed areas and pointed rere-arches. The medieval doorway has a chamfered segmental rere-arch. The roof is in five bays, with two 17th-century trusses featuring tiebeams and two collars supporting three rows of butt purlins. Two of the westernmost trusses are largely original, retaining saddles at the apex, two collars (the lower one renewed), and mortices for arched braces. The westernmost truss appears to have remained in its original position and retains its curved feet set into rebates in the wall. The barn’s construction resembles other early 15th-century New College barns at Upper Heyford and Swalcliffe; John Jylkes, a carpenter, is known to have worked at all three locations. The barn was associated with the rectorial manor house, now The Grange, which was rebuilt in 1684.