St Frideswides Farmhouse

St Frideswides Farmhouse, now a house, dates back to the 16th century, with possible alterations in the 17th century and extensions in the 20th. It is constructed of limestone rubble with ashlar dressings, and has a Stonesfield-slate roof with brick stacks. The original plan was a three-unit through-passage layout with a rear wing, later extended. The front elevation features a moulded stone doorway with a four-centred arch within a rectangular surround. To the right is a five-light stone mullioned-and-transomed window with a label; to the left a five-light mullioned window with a label, a blocked doorway with a heavy wooden lintel, and a three-light mullioned window with a rendered label. The first floor has four-light mullioned windows to the left and centre, plus a small window above the main door, also with a label. The right end wall has a second five-light mullioned-and-transomed window and a four-light window above, lacking its mullions. All windows have concave chamfers and leaded glazing, including some old diamond quarries. The hipped roof has stacks at the left end and to the rear of the right unit, rising from a large stone projection with sloping weatherings. A central hipped-roof rear wing, possibly originally containing the stair, has a three-light ovolo-moulded wood-mullioned window and is now flanked by a 20th-century wing and a 17th or 18th-century lean-to extension returning from the right end. Internally, the right end contains the through passage and a double-ovolo-moulded wooden doorway with carved vase stops. This leads to a room containing 17th-century oak panelling below a strapwork frieze, and a large 16th-century stone four-centre arched fireplace with recessed spandrels and a moulded cornice below a contemporary carved wooden overmantel with three arched panels separated by caryatids. This room may originally have incorporated the through passage. The chamber above, now subdivided, has a simpler Tudor-arched fireplace with a similar moulded cornice. Ground-floor rooms to the left of the passage have lower ceilings with heavy chamfered beams. A studded rear door is now internal. The moulded wooden doorway is similar to two at Water Eaton Manor House nearby. The house was occupied by the Lenthall family in the late 16th century.