St Frideswides Farmhouse

GOSFORD AND WATER EATON A43 SP51SW (East side) Cutteslowe 6/37 St. Frideswides Farmhouse 26/11/51 GV II* Farmhouse, now house. C16, possibly altered C17; extended C20. Limestone rubble with ashlar dressings; Stonesfield-slate roof with brick stacks. 3-unit through-passage plan with rear wing, extended. 2 storeys. Front has, to right of centre, a moulded stone doorway with a 4-centred arch within a rectangular surround; to right is a 5-light stone mullioned-and-transoaed window with label; to left a 5-light mullioned window with label, a blocked doorway with heavy wooden lintel, and a 3-light mullioned window with render label. At first floor are 4-light mullioned windows, to left and centre, plus a small window with label above the main door. Right end wall has a second 5-light mullioned-and-transomed window, and has a 4-light window above without its mullions. All have concave chamfers and leaded glazing, including some old diamond quarries. Hipped roof has stacks at the left end and to rear of the right unit rising from a large stone projection with sloping weatherings. Central hipped-roof rear wing, possibly originally containing the stair, has a 3-light ovolo-moulded wood-mullioned window, and is now flanked by a C20 wing and a C17/C18 lean-to extension returning from the right end. Interior: right end contains the through passage and a double-ovolo-moulded wooden doorway with carved vase stops. This leads to a fine room containing C17 oak panelling below a strapwork frieze, plus a large C16 stone 4-centre arched fireplace with recessed spandrels and moulded cornice below a contemporary carved wooden overmantel with 3 arched panels separated by caryatids. The room may originally have incorporated the through passage. The chamber above (now subdivided) has a plainer Tudor-arched fireplace with similar moulded cornice. Ground-floor rooms to left of the passage have lower ceilings with heavy chamfered beams. A heavy studded rear door is now internal. The moulded wooden doorway is similar to 2 at Water Eaton Manorhouse (q.v.) nearby. Occupied in late C16 by Lenthall family. (V.C.H.: Oxfordshire, Vol.12 (to be published)).

Listing NGR: SP5072711266